MATYLDA TRACEWSKA
Lives and works in Poland
Biography
Born in 1978 in Warsaw, Poland. Graduated from Painting and specialized with mural techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, she has developed her mosaic skills at the Mosaic Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, Italy.
She collaborated with Ravenna’s mosaic artists. She participated in various exhibitions, like Works from the World during the Festival of Contemporary Mosaic Ravennamosaico and Bibliomosaico; she represented Ravenna’s Academy of Fine Arts during the Creativity Festival in Florence (2008) and Venice Art Fair of Forlì (2009).
In 2009, together with other students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna, she made a huge mosaic mural, based on proper project, entitled La Poderosa, now collocated in Sancti Spiritus in Cuba.
In 2010 she was chosen for a Special Prize for Mosaic offered by Solo Mosaico Magazine and she carried out Artist-in-Residence project in Saint Petersburg, entitled Black Square, dedicated to Kasimir Malevich.
She took part of the project Reliquary for Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art 2011. In collaboration with with russian performer Slava Mizin (Blue Noses), she created a mosaic texture for the work Malevich’s Coffin.
In 2011/2012, as a member of Kokomosaico Mosaic Studio team of Ravenna, in collaboration with Noble Design Solutions in Dubai, she worked in Muscat (Oman) doing decorative mosaic pannels, entiteled Tree of Life, for Al Ameen Mosque in Muscat.
Artist statement – FREEDOM.5PM
I came across these two girls playing in the sand on one Friday afternoon while I was wandering down the beach in Oman. There was something touchingly innocent and peaceful in the scene, as the girls seemed to be continuously blessed by the sea each time the wave reached their playground. “Infinite freedom” was the first thing that came to my mind at that moment, and this very image returned to me when I started to think about my artistic response to “Passion for Freedom” theme.
I decided to use a mix of two techniques—painting and mosaics to emphasize the contrast between aerial transparency of the painted image and almost brutal, material effect of the stone surface. The rocky landscape of the mosaic structure creates the sense of depth that makes the view of the girls distanced both physically and psychologically. Through the gap in the wall laced with the wire you can only catch the sight of the world behind it. Or maybe you can even break through? Who is the prisoner here, you – or them? Or maybe there’s no prison at all?