What Can I Do for You?

This time, Monika Waraxa has taken on the role of a painter-traveler, fascinated by nature. As a painter-traveler, she has become an integral part of her narrative, in which her artistic convictions blend with visions of the urban landscape. The main theme of this exhibition is the vision of Katowice – a city the artist visited briefly only once. Katowice remained for her a new and unknown city with the potential to surprise, bestow something, and even evoke epiphany. Guided by a sense of gratitude, the artist poses the city the question: ‘What can I do for you?’

The main inspiration to paint major paintings for this exhibition was the history of the Rawa River, polluted as a result of destructive human activity and shamefully hidden underground in the city center. For the artist, the Rawa is like a woman who left Katowice when its waters became contaminated.

Despite the fact that an inspiration for paintings is the story of the destruction of the river, for the artist, the creative process is the way to bring about affirmative qualities to the process. During the process of creating paintings, she connected the primal power and regenerative forces of nature dormant in the river’s waters.

The key painting for the exhibition is Rawa, an allegory of the river. It is inspired by Cornelis de Vos’s and Paul de Vos’s painting Allegory of Water. The inspiration from the 17th-century allegory indicates a period when the Rawa was clean and unpolluted by human activity. The painting simultaneously depicts the gentleness and power of the water element. For Waraxa, painting allegories of nature spots of power is a way to create a pantheon of heroines – representatives of the forces of nature and the feminine aspect. By asking ‘what can I do for you?’, Monika Waraxa herself initiates action, symbolically restoring the river and its feminine power of regeneration to the city.

Accompanying the allegory of the Rawa River were paintings depicting animal archetypes associated with the water element: Goddess Frog, Fish Head (Red), Fish Head (Yellow), wildflowers Three Violets, Poppy, Cornflower, as well as three portraits of the artist’s mother: Mother in the Garden, Owl-Mother, Among the Stars. The figure of the mother symbolizes the source of the artist’s life.

Monika Waraxa
What Can I Do for You?
Oblatów 4, artist-run space, Katowice, Poland
April 27 – May 25, 2024

The link to photo documentation of the exhibition: SZUM Magazine