Magdalena Gluszak - Holeksa

Through painting, I search for a language to explore impermanence and the body’s relationship with the nonmaterial. The process of transforming and revealing through painting is an enquiry into symbols of the non-physical and extensions of the visible. Shifting between awareness and the subconscious, I wrestle with memories that slip my control and with knowledge that seems to exist beyond the reach of my senses.

I’m drawn to limited, cool colour palettes which echo the nocturnal moods of the natural environment where I grew up. My compositions merge elements of the natural environment, everyday objects, interiors and body details, retaining traces of personal photography, family albums and found images. I allow these documented moments to collide with inner experiences. Placed within dim ambiguous settings, shadows and lights punctuate these constructed scenes, which I explore as elements that intrude, burn out and disguise. The boundaries and structures of form become fluid, mirroring the weight and movement of thoughts: petals detach and float, materials expand or liquify and walls evaporate, leading me into uncanny moments caught in-between landscape and still-life. Painting is a means to navigate through and dismantle the in...

2017 - 2019
MFA Fine Arts, Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London - Distinction

2011 - 2014
BA (Hons) Photography, Arts University Bournemouth, England

2010 - 2011
Foundation Degree in Art and Design, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London

2023
John Moores Painting Prize, Liverpool
A Matter of Perspective, Liliya Art Gallery, London
South Open, OHSH Projects, London

2022
The Letchworth Open, Broadway Gallery
(Solo) A Mountain, Too, Has Its Thoughts, Broadway Gallery

2021
Correspondence 01, Letchworth Broadway Gallery & Exeter Phoenix Gallery, UK
Re:store Re:new Re:imagine, Willesden Gallery, London


2020
Emergent Vision, Uncovered Collective, London

2019
ARTIQ The Graduate Art Prize, Herbert Smith Freehills, London
Orbit UK Art Graduates Show, OXO Tower Wharf, London
'Postopia', Ugly Duck, London

2018
Who Will Provide?, Crypt Gallery, London
Window 71, Broad Lane, London
Beyond The Pale, LOFT, London

2017
(Solo) Rozczlonkowanie (Dismemberment), COK Dom Narodowy, Cieszyn, Poland

2014
TURF, Oxo Tower Wharf, London

2012
Bar-Tur Award, Paradise Row Gallery, London