“Das sombras e do nevoeiro” (Of shadows and fog) presents a selection of prints and drawings by Joanna Latka, characterized by a strong expressionist quality, in a monochromatic register of intense contrasts between light and dark, in an evident reference to German Expressionism. Hence the title of the exhibition, formally inspired by Woody Allen’s film of the same name (1991), itself a tribute to this artistic movement of the early twentieth century.
The works presented in this exhibition invite us on a journey through Joanna Latka’s artistic path, which began in Kraków, her hometown. From those early years, around 2005, Joanna has retained a sensitivity for observing reality, preserving sensations and perceptions in her memory, later transforming them into her own expressions, in the double sense of the word: literal and artistic.
“Reality” thus becomes a personal, emotional, and unique territory that gains existence in the metal plate or on the sheet of paper. Angels appear in struggle. Souls swim along a river. On the telephone and in the metro, fragmented phrases are overheard. There are kisses and sushi. One strolls at night, of course. There are women, nurturers or lovers. There are conversations from some everyday life. Encounters and missed encounters on a fifth face of the moon. They emerge like shadows in a fog that is at times intense, at times soft, suspended on the wall or in the middle of the room like galaxies.
The atoms are these distorted figurative characters, wrapped in mystery, in stories and fictionalized scenarios with shadowy and contrasting outlines. An ironic and satirical imagination, stylistic and formal tools characteristic of Joanna Latka’s artistic sensibility, through which she challenges the viewer to leave their orbit and take flight. As in Italo Calvino’s book, shall we make the galaxies fly?
