Żaneta CHŁOSTOWSKA (b. 1983), The Night of Creation, 2024

acrylic on canvas, 100 x 70 cm, signed lower right: ŻCHS24

She began her art education at the State High School of Fine Arts in Zielona Góra, majoring in exhibition design. After graduating, she continued her studies at the Institute of Visual Arts, where in 2009 she earned her master’s degree in painting from the University of Zielona Góra in the studio of Prof. Jan Gawron. For a time, she lived and worked in Liverpool. She practices painting, mosaic, and sculpture. The dominant theme of her work is women and their condition in the contemporary world. These themes are not conveyed directly; they therefore require intellectual effort and interpretive maturity. The frequently appearing female faces—exuding a certain degree of melancholy, concentration, withdrawal, and visible detachment from the world—and even those with unmistakable attributes of agency provoke reflection, and intrigue, raising questions about the boundaries of subjugation or … independence. It is a search for one’s own identity through the reclamation of space within social identity. The problems faced by the statistically larger portion of our population are of a mental nature; shaped since the dawn of our species, they have left a mark in the form of social roles and dependencies. Despite many changes and the passage of time, the social role of women has not undergone a significant reevaluation for a large part of society. As for the technical aspect, the painter’s use of a strongly subdued color scheme—which rarely allows for a broader palette and frequently employs various shades of black and gray—gives her works a very specific, original, and rich in interpretive nuances. The “absence of a background” is also highly significant, as it strongly emphasizes the importance of the chosen subject. Although many painters have employed this technique, here it is applied in a pure and uncompromising manner. Depth, nothingness, spacelessness, and transience can bring us closer to understanding through contrast and emphasis—or they can irrevocably absorb everything. Ambiguity, multi-layeredness, and yet… quite spectacular to behold.
Selected exhibitions:

- WO-MAN, Paintings by Żaneta Chłostowska – The Seamstress – Artus Court, Toruń – solo exhibition

- Summer Art Break – Woman between – Mercure Hotel, Warsaw – group exhibition

- “The Real Woman” – Arche Hotel, Warsaw – solo exhibition

- “West Lancashire Annual Open Exhibition” – United Kingdom, group exhibition

- Paintings by Żaneta Chłostowska – The Seamstress, Berlin-Teltow, Germany – solo exhibition

- DiamondsCraft NFT Art - Auction House - Berlin, Germany - group exhibition

- “Grain of Art - Garden of Hope” – National Museum in Warsaw - group exhibition

- “The Real Woman,” “POD KOPUŁĄ” Gallery at the Provincial Public Library in Gorzów Wielkopolski, 2023 – solo exhibition

- Her biography was included in “Encyclopedia of Notable Figures of the Republic of Poland,” Vol. IX/2023, published by
BPH British Publishing House