Latest Work
Dripping, Black and Red, 2016, acrylic on cardboard
Sideshow Gallery, "Sideshow Nation V: Thru The Rabbit Hole 2 "
© Maria Sochaniewicz 2017
Red Dripping, 2016,
acrylic on cardboard
Sidney Mishkin Gallery, "Small Works Baruch 2016", Baruch College, NYC
© Maria Sochaniewicz 2017
"ABSTRACT TIME", 2012
Solo Ehxibition in Polish-Slavic Culture Center, Brooklyn, NY
Three or four years ago, my abstract work focused on stains. I then turned to a series of work the major
motif of which was strips.
Most recently, my paintings have been organized around drips. What this work has in common is a concern
with painterliness - the use of paint, gesture and color - that takes itself as the subject matter.
There is no need to look for any external reference in this work in order to understand it.
Maria Sochaniewicz 2012
Maria Sochaniewicz in PII Gallery
"Dripping"
05 - 27 - November, 2010
Maria Sochaniewicz, a well regarded Polish artist, surprised us again. Her most recent body of work, a sample of which we can admire at this exhibition, is entirely different from her previous paintings and yet there is clearly the common tread that extends through all the phases of her artistic road – from figurative to purely abstract.
Great use of color and texture that captures the movement is a characteristic component of Maria's art. The paintings presented here are full of motion, rough and mobile at the same time. An interesting spectrum of prevailing shades, different in every painting, organizes the series into a puzzle that can be seen in many different configurations, all of them valid but unexpectedly free of boundaries.
Attention to abstract detail seamlessly connects the irregular geometry to a whole gamut of suggestions anchored in life itself. Decoding each picture separately and the entire series as a whole leads the spectator to the acceptance of the simultaneity of abstract and so called “real”, not a small exploit.
Maria Sochaniewicz paints with enough power and conviction to give us ample room to analyze and interpret, create our own associations and appreciate the metaphor. In her works one can see fluidity of water, brutal strength of wind, light blinding the eyes, even signs of human activities that can harm or degrade others. The spatial density of her paintings could be the reflection of the weaved nature of a decorative fabric, but it could be a visualization of the impregnable bars of an asylum as well. On the other hand, in a quite precarious way, the paintings of this series have a decidedly calming effect on ones psyche.
This noble dichotomy in not illogical, not unnatural though. On the contrary, it has all the markings of great art that antagonizes in order to cleanse.
by Apolinary Galecki
for PII Gallery
