Visual artist, painter. She graduated from the Faculty of Painting and the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She also holds a degree in Cultural Studies from the Faculty of Philology, University of Gdańsk. In 2022, she earned a Doctor of Arts degree. At her alma mater, she works as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Painting. She is a multiple laureate and finalist of national and international painting competitions. Her solo exhibitions have been held at, among others, the Promocyjna Gallery in Warsaw, Gdańsk City Gallery, BWA City Gallery in Bydgoszcz, Galeria Bardzo Biała in Warsaw, and Galeria EL. Pela's paintings are in numerous private collections as well as the permanent collections of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the European Solidarity Centre, and the New Art Museum NOMUS.

Magdalena Pela

Magda Pela is an observer, a conscientious copyist of the imperceptible, the transparent or the rejected.  The inspiration for her latest series of works comes from signatures on walls, letters carved into the bark of trees, tags hastily written with a marker on an information board. The artist wanders around the city and the surrounding woods looking for traces that we sweep our eyes over every day without noticing them. Like dirt on a window pane through which we look at something more important and interesting. 

She also looks for sources on the internet, which, paralleling the physical public space, has become an agora for the realisation of our needs. Pela uses memes and drawings we come across on social media. They occupy us for a few seconds, only to be pushed out of our memory after a while by further images and information.

It is this escaping of the everyday with its profane that shapes and certifies our existence. The artist thus tells us about ourselves through the signs we intentionally leave behind - we write, scribble, draw, carve. She is not interested in the content, form and composition of the records. What is important here is not their legibility, but their visibility. Pela notices and appreciates the gesture of the author. She chooses non-ideal and ephemeral records that appear as a result of the irrepressible human need to leave a trace of themselves, to mark their existence in the public space. But, ironically, these signs quickly disappear under yet another layer of paint or marker.

The artist comes to the rescue of the perishable evidence of human presence, giving them weight and a new form by preserving them using noble, time-consuming techniques that require concentration. She bends over them with tenderness and attention. She copies them, repeating the gesture of the author, in a long and laborious process. She embroiders the signatures that appeared on the wall in a matter of seconds, embroidering them for weeks with thin thread on a canvas precisely covered with a painting base.

Temporary in nature and common testimonies of our existence are given a second life. By devoting an inadequate amount of work to them and giving them a sophisticated form, the artist breaks the principle of decorum. She allows them to last a long time, taking up the fight against one of our greatest fears - the passing of time.
 

curator: Agata Abramowicz
October 19, 2024 ~ January 19, 2025
exhibition vernissage:
Saturday, October 19, 2024 6.00 pm~9.00 pm

galeria@przyplyw.com

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Wed, Thu, Fri: 2:00 pm~6:00 pm
Sat: 10:00 am~2:00 pm
ul. 3 maja 27~31/30,
Gdynia