Paulina Michnowska

Profile/CV

My practice fluctuates between different mediums: painting, sculpture, moving image etc. Primary interest lies in the process itself, where I can physically explore different materials and their singular characteristics. I deal with paintings/objects/materials just like a writer deals with words. I try to challenge their inherent meaning in order to create new relationships with their surroundings. The subject of my work can be everything. In the latest series of paintings I have been trying to challenge the painting process itself, attempting to understand how it relates to my other practices and if it is influenced by them. I arrived to a conclusion that the final painting is closely connected, running parallel to the other languages with which I work. The painting is a result of a process of selecting and editing those other languages. Making photographs, creating sculptures or video is therefore a necessary intermediary in creating the painting itself. This last series of paintings made me also acknowledge, and to consider more in depth the actual physical process of the application of paint on canvas. In some paintings I spend weeks preparing the grounds and then only a few hours in building the image. On other occasions I have spent long periods of time grinding the pigment in order to create my own colours. These time consuming processes were not only in the interest of creating a high quality product but a proposition to enlarge and slow down th¬¬e process itself. ¬

Website www.paulinamichnowska.com