Sylvia Batycka

My practice is dedicated to the representation of women. I am particularly drawn to ancestresses, I reclaim their image giving an emphasis to both the fortitude and the glamour. I inquire into the aesthetics of absence, hauntology, and nostalgia.

I look at the dress as the memory of the absent. Dresses, that I consider to be the ultimate female garments, form their own visual language -- the feminine sartorial language that speaks of identity, empowerment, and allure. In the absence of the wearer, the dress speaks of non appearance. In the absence of the wearer, the dress forms the only portrait that remains.

My work has an intermediary power between entities: past and present, photography and painting. The protagonists I portray I uncover in archival photos that I collect. They entice me from the past with their mystery and untold stories, yet often all I am left with is an orphan image. Photography informs my painting, both the archival photos and the contemporary ones I take myself. My paintings however, unlike the photographs that inspired them, are not the items of evidence. They are reminders of something else - faded lives and fleeting memories. They aim to evoke the sense of loss.

I see the role of an ...

University of the Arts, London , MFA , 2019

City Literary Institute, London

University of the Arts, London

Westminster University, London

Jagiellonian University, Kraków

“Transformative Togetherness”, Green Hill Gallery, Berlin, 2025
Rawlinson and Hunter annual exhibition, London, 2022
“The woman’s place is everywhere”, The Cello Factory, London, 2022
‘Female narratives’, One Paved Court, London, 2021, solo
ING Discerning Eye, 2020
Young Talent Contemporary Purchase Prize, The Ingram Collection, The Cello Factory, London, 2019
Made in Arts London Collection 2019, TM Lighting, London 2019
MFA Degree Show, Wimbledon College of Art, London, 2019
"Who will provide", The Crypt, London, 2018
Open Studios, The Rum Factory, London, 2018
"Debut", PLY Gallery, London, 2017
"Life in a shoebox" , Back Room Gallery, London, 2017
"SHE", Ugly Duck, London, 2016
"01", Copeland Gallery, London, 2016
"Kobieca TranssMisja", Kraków, 2015
"Hybrid Woman", Subtitles Café, London, 2015, solo show
Parallax Art Fair, London, 2014, art fair
Urban Art Fair, London, 2014, art fair
The Portico Gallery, London, 2014
The Brix, London, 2013
The Brix, London, 2011
The Brix, London, 2010