Ewa Juszkiewicz.The Descent Beckons

editing and concept: Ewa Juszkiewicz, Agnieszka Rayzacher
graphic design: Błażej Pindor
authors: Zofia Krawiec, Agnieszka Rayzacher, Natalia Sielewicz
publisher: Galeria Bielska BWA in collaboration with Fundacja Lokal Sztuki
hardcover, textile binding, 116 pages, Bielsko-Biała 2015

The first book devoted to the work of Ewa Juszkiewicz is an attempt to summarise the artist’s cycle developed since 2012 and inspired by the canon of classic paintings. The series comprises nearly 40 reproductions of works that portray women whose faces are transformed and replaced with polypore, ritual masks, folds of draped fabric or floral elements. This stage of the artist’s practice is discussed in the book in the interview conducted with Ewa Juszkiewicz by Zofia Krawiec.

The second part of the book is devoted to the latest cycle of works by the artist from 2015. Akin to the earlier paintings, her work is based exclusively on photographs. Here, those are mostly black and white poor quality images that originate from decades-old archival materials. Thus, Ewa Juszkiewicz is free to choose colours, formats, and other qualities, turning her modern-day versions of missing works into loose interpretations. As it was the case in the previous series of portraits, the original artworks provide a starting point and a material platform that serves as the basis for further research. Natalia Sielewicz concentrates on this cycle in her essay for the publication. The two stages of Ewa Juszkiewicz’s work are summarised in the text by the editor of the book, Agnieszka Rayzacher.

Apart from reproductions, the book also contains a photographic documentation of two individual exhibitions by Ewa Juszkiewicz – Curls at lokal_30 gallery in Warsaw from 2013, and The Descent Beckons at Bielska Gallery BWA from 2015.