Antiworlds | I might not be there | Exhibition of paintings and prints by Nina Marszalek

Until April 9, on the fourth and fifth floors of WOAK, you can move into the dark and mesmerizing world of Nina Marszalek’s work and see as many as two exhibitions by the artist: “I might not be” – a series of prints, and “Anti-Worlds” – an exhibition of paintings. In her work, Nina Marszalek artistically explores emotions such as fear, helplessness, distrust and visually interprets the theory of anti-matter. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at exhibitions including: International Print Exchange Exhibition Printcard, Wroclaw 2018, II International Triennial of Lithography LITHO-Kielce 2018/2019, XVII International Competition of Small Graphic Form and Exlibris, Museum of the City of Ostrów Wielkopolski 2019 or 4th International Printmaking Triennal, Belgrade, Serbia 2020, and her master’s degree at the Forum Gallery of the Faculty of Fine Arts, UMK in 2022 and at the Center for Contemporary Art “Znaki Czasu” in Toruń as part of the exhibition “DYPLOM 2022. The Best Diplomas of the Faculty of Fine Arts at UMK” in 2023.

I might not be there | exhibition of graphics | 4th floor

Although anxiety is an important and necessary feeling, sometimes it becomes so overwhelming that you can’t breathe. The graphics exhibited on the fourth floor of WOAK depict a state of masked distrust, permanent guilt, and loss in the surrounding world. A state in which loneliness kills and the soul howls. “I might not be there” is a distinguished art diploma realized under the direction of Tomasz Barczyk, Ph.D., UMK professor at the Lithography Studio of the Graphic Arts Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Toruń.

Lithography is a traditional technique of flat printing, in which the role of the matrix is played by a specially prepared limestone. The drawing is developed with crayon and ink directly on it, and then etched with a solution of nitric acid and gum arabic. The properties of the technique mean that only the scratched, that is, greased areas accept ink, while the fragments without drawing remain ungreased. Prints are made by applying the paper to a matrix and moving the whole thing under a lithographic press. Through the use of elements unusual for traditional printmaking techniques, such as gold foil pasted on each work, Nina Marszalek builds her poignant story of neuroticism, the struggles of the neurotic with neuroses, phobias, helplessness.

Catalog of works:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1apftxI3zvuiL0OuHO7lyCwMeXpTsrwF/view?usp=drive_link

Antiworlds | Painting Exhibition | 5th Floor

“There can be whole anti-worlds and anti-people, made of anti-particles. However, if you meet an anti-self, don’t shake his hand! You will both disappear in a great flash of light.”

Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time”

The exhibition of Nina Marszalek’s paintings, which you can admire on the fifth floor of WOAK, consists of paintings painted on canvas in the author’s technique, combining various traditional media: acrylic paints, inks, thin pens, ecoline, as well as schagmetal and ready-made elements in the form of beads pasted on canvas. The use of so many artistic means was a kind of challenge, and a road full of experimentation, trial and error, a work consisting of many stages, time-consuming, exploratory. The metaphorical world that the author created is a visual interpretation of Stephen Hawking’s quote from “A Brief History of Time.”

Catalog of works:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1su5GDCFTuDBu0as8roCERoZG8NA2iPWD/view?usp=drive_link

Nina Marszałek – born in 1997 in Toruń, a graduate of the Department of Graphic Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Her artistic output includes 4 solo exhibitions and more than 30 group exhibitions at home and abroad. Her works are also in private collections. She is the winner of the Prof. Edmund Piotrowicz Teaching Award of the Graphic Arts / Workshop Graphics Specialty for exceptional artistic achievements in the 2018/2019 academic year, as well as the recipient of a scholarship from the Minister of Education and Science, the Municipal Scholarship for students of the City of Toruń and the Rector of the Nicolaus Copernicus University for the best students. She works in painting, illustration and applied graphics. She creates in traditional techniques and experiments with them, combining them and looking for unobvious formal solutions. She works as a graphics specialist at the Provincial Center for Cultural Animation in Toruń.