Leather Coat

In Jadwiga Sawicka's art both words and clothes are a facade, whose banality and falsehood are revealed by the artist. She considers clothes to be an instrument of strengthening the social standard, a voluntarily put on mask, whose aim is to idealise man's image, hide his/her bodily imperfection, as well as cover up emotions, fears, desires and frustrations. Somewhat scruffy garments lifelessly hanging against neutral background appear in both oil paintings and photographs. Sawicka creates their plasticine models as well. According to the artist, clothes, just like words, are at the junction of private and public spheres and lose the ability to convey information while taken out of context.

Jadwiga Sawicka (b. 1959) – creates paintings, photographs, objects, text installations and poetry. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (diploma in 1984 from Jerzy Nowosielski's studio). Her art is often described as “written painting” because the artist makes use of slogans and headlines taken from newspapers, advertisements or the Internet.

Her works are in the collections of Bunkier Sztuki, National Museum in Krakow, MOCAK, National Museum in Warsaw, Zachęta in Warsaw, Wrocław Contemporary Museum and Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, to name a few.