Pandemic 26 Painting

Painter, graphic designer, illustrator. Born in 1987, Radom, Poland. In her practice she focuses on the relationship between nature and humans, closely observing the ways in which we shape the nature in our own backyards. By looking at trimmed hedges, decorative plants and meticulously designed home gardens, Olga Szczechowska captures the sometimes-eerie nature of our immediate surroundings. She lives and works in Warsaw. Olga Szczechowska paints her immediate surroundings – lush gardens, tall trees, blossoming lilacs, and finely trimmed bushes. Her paintings depict the gardens of her Eastern European childhood, featuring geometrically shaped trees, pink flowers, spherical bushes, and stormy skies. These images are deeply ingrained in our collective memory. Amidst the thick greenery of these gardens, there pierces the distinctive geometric architecture characteristic of the Polish landscape - those familiar concrete cubicles with triangular roofs, and vine-covered fences. Mimicking existing garden compositions found on the internet, the artist focuses on the ways in which we control the nature closest to us - our small patches of land. In these zoomed-in landscape representations, the presence of human intervention is strongly evident. Every trimmed bush, every meticulously selected tree planted in a precise location, and every architectural element peeking through the bushes is an intentional human intervention. In her 2020-2021 "Pandemic" series, these common landscapes become even more magical, expressing a longing for the outdoors. Whether it's the small garden outside our childhood homes or a garden we've passed by, Szczechowska's paintings serve as urban substitutes for beloved gardens.