Agnes Grochulska's New Projects and Thoughts On Working Through the Era of Quarantine
With a new exhibition currently on display at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Agnes Grochulska’s expressionist figurative style euphorically transforms portraits into thick, delicate brushstrokes that jump off a canvas. We caught up with her to hear all about her participation in the New Waves exhibition, the new projects she is working on right now and how she is handling the era of quarantine studio life.
Tell us a little about you! How did you get started?
What were those defining moments you felt gave you the strength and passion to keep on creating?
I think it was always in me. I was drawing, doodling, and making things from a young age. I have always loved reading and illustrations fascinated me as a child. I remember flipping through books I already read and knew and staring at the pictures for what seemed like hours - making my own stories about them. And not just children’s books, but encyclopedias, poetry books, magazines… So I guess literature got me interested in art. Then theater. I was taking classes in acting and theater production - it turned out I was more interested in the scenography and all the art related aspects of the play than anything else, so I ended up applying to an art school. I still wasn’t completely ready to become “an artist” - as the degree I chose wasn’t in fine art - but Industrial Design. We had an excellent program with a wide variety of painting, sculpture, drawing classes, but the approach was very relaxed, open studio style. Only much later, after years spent on raising a family and not doing any art - did I decide that painting and drawing is what I really want to do as a career.
Can you tell us about your current New Waves 2020 exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art? How has this experience been?
Yes, it’s been a wonderful experience! My painting “Lia” has been selected to participate in New Waves 2020 at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, an annual juried exhibition recognizing Virginia artists. I felt very honored and thankful to this year’s juror - Susan Thompson, an Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum to have my painting included in the show. ”Lia” is a part of my “Line and Color” painting series, where I have invited people to model for me who in some special way struck me as interesting subjects to portray. Each of the portraits has an underlying idea that expresses either the subject’s character, an inner emotion, or a particular feature - something unique that initially drew my interest. Employing simplified composition and using expressive, gestural lines and bold colors, my intention is to reveal something visceral and true about the subject, and connect it to a larger and more significant message about human existence.
The “New Waves 2020” show’s opening had to be postponed because of the virus, and the following quarantine, but the museum is open again, and ready for visitors! Nothing’s better than seeing the artwork in person, but there are also ways to experience the show online as well. Virtual Virginia MOCA is the museum’s answer to the audience having limited access to the exhibitions due to Covid-19. The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art asked New Waves exhibiting artists to share their work from home, and I was glad to talk about my artistic process and the inspiration for my Line and Color painting series. This talk is a part of the “Featured Artists” series on the VA MOCA’s website where one can view the artwork from the current and past exhibitions, watch interviews, and visit artists’ studios.
Another great way to find out more about “New Waves” is through the museum’s Instagram. I had a great time talking with VA MOCA curator Heather Hakimzadeh about the ways my art practice has changed during the quarantine, and how social distancing changes art in general. We also chatted about Alice Neel, Kathe Kollowitz, and the New Waves 2020 exhibition. The conversation is available to view on the museum’s Instagram IGTV.
What are some of the new projects you have been working on lately?
There are two painting series that I’m currently working on:
“The Outline” series and “It Looks How It Feels” series. The line in “The Outline” paintings acts as a metaphor. It suggests a frame. It incorporates and roots the portrait in the traditional art of portraiture. It also represents the contemporary aspect of the painting in its bold and vibrant expressive character. My hope is that the outline does two things for the painting - adds a narrative and emotion associated with a symbol of a frame and a meaning of certain hue, and works on a strictly decorative level as well. The way I think about the outline color is by choosing one that will either highlight the colors already present in the portrait or contrast them.
The abstract form of the outline adds an emotional weight and highlights the human subject by drawing attention to the portrayed face it frames.
“It Looks How It Feels” paintings are my response to the strange and unsettling feeling we all experience during this pandemic. Social isolation, health concerns, distrupted schedules, all the bad, and some of the good things that come with the change of pace and change of our life styles. The way the situation highlights how we are connected to our environment and connected, and dependent on each other.
How has quarantine life been for you in the studio this year?
I think I have been pretty productive through it all and that I am painting more than ever. Art can be a great way of coping with things. I noticed that my paintings look a little bit different since the start of quarantine. Even though I wasn’t consciously trying to talk about the pandemic and the feeling of unrest we are all collectively going through, it is hard not to. It finds a way to my work - just because the same thing that is going around us is also going on inside us. And so, I have noticed that my portraits are starting to look a bit different - that there is a certain emotion and eeriness - like an in-between emotion, a quiet melancholy, an act of turning inwards. And I thought I will just go with it - that that must be what’s going on - both inside me and what I see in other people’s faces. That this hard to describe emotion must be not only what I am feeling, but what we are all feeling right now. To highlight it even more, I started experimenting with texture in the background that is also a metaphor to what is going around us - all the energy and feelings - the atmosphere of uncertainty, and all the mixed, often opposite emotions inside us. That was my thinking behind the background marks suggesting movement, energy, this kind of general feeling we are experiencing. Just like this unprecedented situation that is affecting, and connecting us at the same time.
Can you share with us some of your goals and dreams- in regards to your creative work, or life in general!
Something that's been on my mind for a while now - are traditional printmaking techniques. I think the way I make and understand art is already pretty similar to the aesthetics of printmaking, and I would like to explore it a bit further both in oil painting and drawing, and by actually trying my hand at printmaking. I think my line work would translate interestingly in print and I’m looking for a way to try it!
Another direction I’d like to try is size. I prefer working on larger rather than smaller formats already, but I would like to go really big! The size of my paintings are mostly dictated by the size of my studio right now, so that’s something that I’m looking into as well - finding a much larger space for me to work in that would allow me to make some really large paintings.
What are some of your favorite pieces, or series, you have finished so far?
I think the three last series are my favorite ones. “Line and Color”, “The Outline” and “It Looks How It Feels”. I like paintings that are somewhat unfinished or abstracted. Drawings in which not everything is fully realised. Art where the viewer can finish the story in their mind and in their own way. I think that way there is more room left for interpretation and feeling. Space for finding out what that particular artwork means to you.
The underlying intention I have for my paintings and drawings is to highlight and share some particular emotion about them that made a particularly strong impression on me. It is this initial impression and raw feeling that I hoped to capture (which is different in different pieces) and found worth sharing with others. While my work is anchored in representation, I try to not only focus on depicting the details of my subject, but also try to capture the emotion - the essence of it. That particular “something” that drew me to that subject in the first moment. My paintings tend to transform a lot during the painting process and take a life on their own, like they want to be telling their own story…
Some of the paintings that I feel were successful in that way are: “Joey 1”, “Portrait with a Cerulean Blue Outline”, “Portrait with a Lemon Yellow Outline”, “Portrait with a Blue Outline”, “It Looks How It Feels 4”
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years from now?
At the easel! In a large, light-filled studio!
