I see the narration as crucial and necessary attribute of our existence into which every element of the reality is clothed - from a nail to a city. Hence my works are equipped with a plot, often very personal one. I am inspired by stories, because I firmly believe in a text. I run both some private shamanic practices and diversionary activities in the city. I deal with a magical dimension of our existen-ce, the simultaneity of the world, André Breton’s objective chance and subtleties of the reality. A multitude of these themes abounds often with complex projects, responding to bothering me questions through various media which I often have to learn completely anew.

+48 609 483 054prawielalka@o2.pl

http://www.izabelaleska.com/

portfolio

solo exhibitions

2015Subjective walks / Gallery Pusta / Katowice / PLZofia / Rondo Sztuki / Katowice / PL

2014Subjective walks / Niederlassung / Berlin / DE From under a long dark eyelash / Gallery Půda / Těšín / CZA FE! / Gallery MD_S / Wroclaw / PLNon-stop / Centrum Promocji Młodych / Czestochowa / PLCre/ations | Gallery 81 Stopni / Warsaw / PL

2013The importance of the rose / Gallery Pojedyncza / Katowice / PL

selected group exhibitions

2014Night activities / BWA / Katowice / PLUsb Shuffle Show / Berlin / DE

2013Passion For Freedom / Embassy Tea Gallery / London / UKSpace as a Tool / Zamek Sielecki / Sosnowiec / PLI Art Encounters in Cieszyn / PLGrafika Roku 2012 / Gallery Humberta 3 / Cracov / PL

2012Urban Legends / ZPAF / Katowice / PLHunt in an Enclosed Garden / Clermont-Ferrand / FR

projects / residencies

2014artistic residence in the Institut für Alles Mögliche / Berlin / DE

2012Curator Libera / Wroclaw / PL

awards / distinctions

2014Award of the Mayor of Gliwice for achievements in the arts / PL Best Diploma 2013 / SMTG Cracov / PL

2013shortlisted for Passion For Freedom 2013 / UKa finalist of Hestia’s Artistic Journey 2013 / PLwinner of the first prize at the I Art Encounters in Cieszyn / PLnominated for Trójka Talents 2013 in the category of Visual Arts / PL

bio

born in 1989, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice (di-ploma with honors in 2013). She studied as well at the École Supérieure d’Art de Clermont Metropole (Clermont-Ferrand, France). She has participated in many projects and exhibitions in the country and abroad (Passion For Freedom 2013, Lon-don / Usb Shuffle Show, Berlin). She cre-ates graphics, objects and texts. She works at her home university as an assistant in the Department of Graphic Arts.

http://www.izabelaleska.com/

zofia2015

The family story is about my great-aunt Zofia who lived in a wooden hut with hand-painted roses. She was a half-sister of my grandfather - the eleventh child. In this history there was a displacement. Another relationship and a new child disrupt cer-tain order. All the brothers are stepbrothers and a cousin who should be the same age is about to die. Some roles are distorted. The language responds to this state of things. Words take a journey and the rose is red. Trails blurre, memories fade. In the absence of evidence a language repetition becomes the only possible (because the only real) content. The rose fades. It remains to repeat stubbornly Zofia is Zofia, roses are roses and the story is just a story. I do not get the answers to the question who Zofia was and whether the story with roses is true. The rose finally blooms blue.

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!zofia/cmgk

installation of graphic prints, relief printing 55 x 40 cm each photos: Tomasz Biały

relief print, 20 x 20 cm each

installation of wooden beams with fragmens from Gertrude Stein’s „Sacred Emilia” 25 x 190 cm, on the right: detail

object made of dyed wooden boards 180 x 100 cm, above framed photo 18 x 13 cm

subjective walks2014

I go out into the city. I savor the act of walking itself and I record the exact course of each walk. It results in a linear image, which becomes a form of an urban drawing. The city becomes a source of deci-sions. I appeal to the surrealistic concept of an objective coincidence. The decision on pursuing for something, even very elusive gives vent to the inner impulses that coex-ist with the reality. I trace the magie circon-stancielle – circumstantial magic and I collect objets trouvé (found objects).

the work was created during a residency in Institut für Alles Mögliche in Berlin

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!subjective-walks/c1igo

A4 prints registration of walks and wire objects, view of the exhibition photos: Krzysztof Biały

found object: pages from Labirynte by Ulrich Koch

A4 prints registration of walks

chestnut object 40 x 40 cm, on the right: view of the exhibition

installation of wire objects, 18 elements 300 x 200 cm, on the left: one of the objects in detail

frottages of Karla Sachse’s installation Kaninchenfeld 420 x 200 cm, on the right: detail

dreamt object: My Wedding dress 5 x 5 cm, on the right: found object and print in passe-partout 13 x 18 cm

a point that took a walk2014

Paul Klee once said that the line is a point that went for a walk. I take the part of this point, I’m going through the city and behind me I leave stretched cotton thread, which I develop from my coat pocket. This thread follows the steps of my wandering and tells the story of my presence. I walk like a lunatic where the intuition leads me. The night space seems to be different, but thanks to the threads tied to the starting point, you can always come back safely. The pedestrians do not notice the thread which runs behind them, blocks their movements, engages with zippers, unpleasantly brushes the surface of their skin. I come back com-pulsively to the same places to rebuild the structure which is still being destroyed.

the action was part of an project Night Activities realized in the Gallery of Mod-ern Art in Katowice / PL

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!a-point-that-took-a-walk/cee5

photographic documentation of the action in the city, cotton thread, Katowice, Poland photos: Barbara Kubska

photographic documentation of the action in the city

photographic documentation of the urban intervention

cre/ations2013

I’m interested in the human body and in particular bodily detritus (nails, eyelashes, hair) which can be described as a sort of a poetry in time. I consider the body as a kind of perpetuum mobile and a sculptural object. Skin products always return to the same point as in the mathe-matical travelling salesman problem. They provide evidence of our body’s sisyphean work. We get rid of them with absolutely no regrets although they are witnesses of everyday moments, sponges of emotions and experiences.

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!creations/ctdd

objects presented on glass shelves and poems transferred onto fabric using nitro, view of the exhibition in the Gallery of Modern Art in Katowice, Poland photos: Tomasz Biały, Kamila Kuźnicka

poems, dimensions: 25 x 12 cm, 40 x 12 cm, 120 x 12 cm

one of the poems, detail

3 poems, tulle bands

8 objects made of eyelashes and nails in ceramic mass presented on glass shelves, dimensions of each one: 2.5 x 6 x 2.5 cm

photo prints transferred onto fabric using nitro, eight bands of transparent tulle embroidered partly with gold thread, 100 x 400 cm

traveling salesman problem solved for moles on my body, front and back of the body, twine, pins, acrylic paint, 160 x 180 cm

traveling salesman problem, detail

an object made of balsa wood and wax strips with hair ripped from all over the body’s surface, 70 x 120 cm

white silesia2012

The project involved the exploration of subjective memories, opinions, impres-sions of the inhabitants of Silesia (region in southern Poland). These are the stories sometimes heard, perhaps not always true, in which the main role is played - as it was stated in the request for which I asked my Silesian friends - white mate-rial. And it’s the white color which is the most important to the whole project. It becomes a metaphor for relativity and it turns out to be the most subjective color. Thus, a certain feature becomes merely a pretext which anyone can fill with con-tent that one only wants.

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!white-silesia/c24rc

digital print of a map 70 x 50 cm, map-object made of styrofoam with texts on the modeling foam 130 x 100 cm,a table with puzzles made of styrofoam 65 x 65 cm, view of the whole exhibition at the Gallery Katowice ZPAF, Poland photos: Aneta Hąc

the texts on the modeling foam

the map and the texts

the map in detail

me it’s you2012

I wander through the city. I search for interesting links between the names on the mailboxes. These associations are sometimes very personal, sometimes naive, but always subjective. At times the task is easier, but sometimes it gets really hard. I am acting completely intuitively but I always try to find a real, deep, sub-jective relations between the names. I swap the name tags on mailboxes be-longing to the residents of the buildings. I’m interested in a subtle action on the outside of the building, that can have huge effects which however I’ll never know, because I do not enter the building physically. I only count on some effects - maybe neighbours will speak to each other for the first time ever about the sus-picious event, maybe someone will quarrel and maybe someone else will fall in love?

the work was created during the work-shop Hunt In An Enclosed Garden with Julien Berthier at the École Supérieure d’Art de Clermont Metropole in France

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!me-its-you/c1p7h

photographic documentation of the action in the city

photographic documentation of the action in the city (above) and preparations for action (below)

photographic documentation of an ephemeral action in the city, 3 prints 13 x 37 cm

our lady blueberry2012

A very personal story about betrayal, based on facts. Dealing with a painful experience of betrayal in a double form. The man betrayed, but also a friend betrayed. She had a lovely, fruity name. We sat together on the same bench for the Holy Communion. Memories do not want to leave like berries stains. Accidentally found fragment of Jadwiga Sawicka’s work with a the text with a mantra structure and subtly trans-formed church hymn are used as medias that help to express emotions.

http://www.izabelaleska.com/#!our-lady-blueberry/cj7j

performance, two-channel video without audio, mpeg-4, 0:10:09http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZX9xfdkGAk

the effect of the performance, print, fruit 120 x 100 cm and 5 objects made of plywood with the converted text of „Hymn of Our Lady Blueberry”, 15 x 15 x 23 cm photos: Joanna Zdzienicka

photos-collages of Holy Communion, 13 x 18 cm

znaleziony i oprawiony fragment pracy Jadwigi Sawickiej, 34x33 cm

the found and framed piece of Jadwiga Sawicka’s work, 26 x 25 cm