Bio

Malwina Chabocka graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, United Kingdom, and Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. For a number of years, she worked across several disciplines, gradually identifying her area and language of expression, before she made painting her primary focus. Author of two children’s books, she developed site-specific art events, graphic design for short films, and scenography for theatre and operatic productions, including “The Burial at Thebes” opera at Shakespeare’s Globe in London and “The Little Prince” musical at the Musical Theatre ROMA in Warsaw. She has participated in solo and group shows in the UK, Portugal and Poland. Since 2022, she has been living in The Hague, Netherlands.

About the exhibition

In an interview with David Sylvester in 1990, Francis Bacon said that “art is an obsession with life and after all, as we are human beings, our greatest obsession is with ourselves.”

The title of the exhibition is a reference both to the size of the works and to the subject. The paintings presented at Ancien Cinema reveal the artist’s obsession with the human body and bodily instincts which both express and facilitate the emotional and cognitive evolution that happens continuously in one’s life. In her painting, Malwina Chabocka draws from the experience of physical theatre and performance, where the body expresses a story in itself.

The artist’s technique has evolved from more illustrative paintings into semi-realistic compositions where flat areas of colour are juxtaposed with loose brushstrokes, expressive daubs od paint and bold contours. Making use of a palette dominated by cool hues, she produces paintings that create an atmosphere of perplexity and mystery.

Many of her works depict figures in isolation, and in those with a couple or more people, bodies are often intertwined and overlapping; there is tension and a sense of uneasiness. The artist is fascinated by everything that causes this tension: hidden desires, repressed feelings, haunting memories, shame, pain and longing; passions and needs which escape socially accepted norms and fight for their reason to exist. Through the medium of paint, Malwina Chabocka summons all those secret inner tales onto her canvas, inviting the viewer to feel as well as view them through the filter of personal experience and imagination.