10 Nov – 16 Dec 2023

Katarzyna Korzeniecka & Monika Patuszyńska
Schwarz Contemporary, Sanderstraße 28, 12047 Berlin
Curators: Łukasz Drgas, Stefan Kornatowski

Korzeniecka uses the ebru and marquetry techniques for painting. She gives up the brush to painstakingly build representations from patterns that we have found for centuries in the bookbinding craft, on wallpaper or furniture. Korzeniecka’s creations, however, go beyond the area of design, becoming full-fledged paintings. Similarly, Patuszyńska’s sculptures: although they retain a utilitarian character (vases, bowls, goblets), this utilitarian nature is, however, treated with contempt, omitted, rejected (the artist also creates completely abstract forms). Having observed Monika’s work for years, I can see the work becoming increasingly free from utilitarianism. While Korzeniecka, having received academic education, gives up classical painting and uses craft techniques to create paintings, Patuszyńska goes in a slightly different direction. She is a ceramic designer, but she is one of those “designers” who abandoned the almost functional nature of objects in their formal experiments. In both cases, however, we are dealing with crossing a certain fluid boundary between design and art.

Łukasz Drgas