Anna Bocek Biography

ANNA BOCEK Study at Academy of Fine Arts, Faculty of Painting & Set Design. Painter, set designer, designer co-founder of design group Substance. A several dozen collective and solo painting exhibitions in Poland, USA, Germany, Sweden, Spain, France, UK, Italy, Austria, Greece, Chech Republic, Taiwan:

"Jahresausstellung 2015" Kleine Galerie, Wien, Austria, 2015 www.kleinegalerie.at

WL4 Art Space INAUGURATION, Gdansk, Poland, 2015

"Jahresschau 2015" Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2015 www.art-affair.net

"Figurative Modern" Kleine Galerie, Wien, Austria, 2015 www.kleinegalerie.at

"Collective Show" Mike Wright Gallery, Denver, USA, 2015 www.mikewrightgallery.com

"Anna Bocek- recent works" Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY, USA , 2015 www.canfingallery.com

International Bosporus Art Biennale /Sonderschau: Atelier an der Donau/Istanbul/Wien 2014

"Summer Show", Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2014 www.art-affair.net

STROKE ART FAIR, Munick 2014, Germany

"Woman by Women", Paris, France, 2014 www.art-Traffik.com

LAGERKOLLER, Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2013/2014 www.art-affair.net

A.R.T. Art Revolution Taipei, Taiwan, 2013

"Farbe Bekennen”, Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2013 www.art-affair.net

GALERIEKÜNSTLER ArtAffair, Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2012/2013 www.art-affair.net

The Museum of Emigration /2nd Honorable Mention at the international competition for visual concept/, Gdynia, Poland 2012

COLLECTIVE SHOW, Plein-Air Workshop Exhibition, Basilicata, Italy 2012

"Artist Talk with Anna Bocek", Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2012 www.art-affair.net

Anna Bocek -Recent Works"Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2011/2012 www.art-affair.net

"Polish Contemporary Painting", Galeria DAP, Warsaw, Poland, 2011

ROMAN FACTORY /archaeological center/ project & production, Gdansk 2011

"Anna Bocek- recent works" Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY, USA , 2011

"Pure painting II” Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2010 www.art-affair.net

"Collectiva d'arte MIRA” Palazzo Palmieri, Martignano, Puglia, Italy, 2010

"Collective Show- Atelier an der Donau”, ART Innsbruck internationale Kunstmesse, Austria, 2010

Instituto Rural de Arte de Jose Lucas Carrion-Vazquez, Alcala del Jucar, Spain, 2010

"Atelier an der Donau", Museum of Oscar Kokoschka, Pochlarn, Austria, 2009 /I prize Internationales Kunstlersymposium/

"Centrum Hevelianum”, project & production, Gdańsk, 2009

"New Works", Canfin Gallery, Tarrytown, NY, USA, 2009

Painting Exhibition” Konsulat Generalny RP w Malmö, Szwecja, 2009

"Anna Bocek -Recent Works” Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Niemcy, 2009

"Painting exhibition" Polish Consulate General in Malmö, Sweden, 2009

"Recent Works- winter collection" Art Affair Gallery, Regensburg, Germany, 2008/2009

"Mich zu bewahren"Art Affair Gallery Regensburg, Germany, 2007

Nouvelle Biennale, Galerie de la Marine, Nice, France, 2007

The Fusion Gallery, Alicante, Spain, 2007

"Visions of a Woman" Art Affair Galerie, Cannes, France, 2006

"III Painting Meeting La Alberca" Spain, 2006

"Amber Museum" design of the visual setting, Gdansk, 2006

"Stage Design and Spatial Forms" National Museum in Gdansk, 2006

"Zeitgenössische gegenständliche Kunst" Art Affair Gallery, Regensburg, Germany, 2006

"Summertime" Levent Gallery London, 2005

"Painting Exhibition - Elements II",Fabryka Trzciny, Warsaw, 2005

"Painting Exhibition I", Galeria Aneri, Gdansk, 2005

"Vier Leidenschaften", Kunstsalon Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf, Germany, 2004

The Gallery Beckenham, London, England; - "Recent Works : Anna Bocek; Enver Gursev", 2004

"La Agenda Art - Special March 04 - Anna Bocek" La Agenda Office & Project Management, Mallorca-Spain, 2004

"La Agenda Art - Special Jan 04 - Erling Leick & Anna Bocek" La Agenda Office & Project Management, Majorka- Spain, 2004

"Collective Extension", The Confusion Art Gallery, Piacenza, Italy, 2004

"La Agenda Art- Special Nov/Dec - Jim Bassett & Anna Bocek" - La Agenda Office & Project Management, Mallorka-Spain, 2004

"Painting Exhibition - part II", Art-Domain Gallery, Mallorca, Spain, 2004

"Recent Works : Enver Gursev; John Brown F.R.B.S.; Anna Bocek", The Gallery Beckenham, London, England, 2004

"Painting Exhibition", World Fine Art Gallery, New York, USA, 2004

"Shakespeare Set Design Exhibition" Theatrum Gedanese Foundation, Gdansk, 2003

"Painting Exhibition", Dimidium Toto Gallery, Sopot, 2003

"III Art Festival of Gdansk ", Era Art, Gdansk, 2003

"Painting Exhibition - part I", Art-Domain Gallery, Mallorca, Spain, 2003

Women in Painting" - Tygiel Gallery, Gdynia, 2003

"Painting Exhibition" - Cascada Warszawa, 2002

"In Old Gdynia's Cinema", Centre of Franciscan, Gdynia, 2002

"Gate of Memory" Historical Exhibition Centre of St, John, Gdansk, 2002

"II Art Festival of Gdansk ", Era Art Gdansk , 2001

"Painting Exhibition" - Gallery ' 78 Gdynia, 2001

"Just a man" Young Designers Exhibition Centre of St, John, Gdansk, 2001

"I Art Festival of Gdansk ", Gdansk, 2001

"Searching for style", National Museum in Gdansk, 2000

"Pattern & Space", National Museum in Gdansk, 1999

"Andrzej Markowicz & his students", Sopot Designer's Gallery, Sopot, 1998

"Young Designers Exhibition" Baltic Dramatic Theather, Koszalin, 1997

"Design projects exhibition", Gdansk; - "Portfolio" - State Gallery of Art, Sopot 1996

Artist's Statement

“ICONS OF MODERN TIMES” - PAWEŁ HUELLE (...)Paweł Huelle is a novelist and poet. He was born in Gdańsk in 1957 and graduated in Polish Philology at the University of Gdańsk. He has worked in that city as an employee of the "Solidarity" press office, university lecturer, journalist, director of the Gdansk Polish Television Center and, most recently, as a columnist for "Gazeta Wyborcza". Honoured with many prestigious literary awards, Huelle is one of the most successful contemporary Polish writers. His first novel Who Was David Weiser (1987) was hailed by the critics as “the book of the decade,” “a masterpiece” and “a literary triumph” and has been published, among others, in Germany, Spain, France and Finland (...) On a scorching afternoon this June, I met Anna Bocek in the Old City of Gdańsk under rather unusual circumstances, at the opening of the Amber Museum. The presence of the artist was not accidental as her design was used to arrange the interior and the amber treasure exhibition in the medieval walls. The modern and daring production clearly showed the experience gained by Anna in her set design work for many, often famous, plays. However, the main area of artistic expression for Anna Bocek has always been painting. This conscious choice sets her roots and sources of fascination in European expressionism; however, she does not simply continue this trend or its postmodernist parodic development. One could say that the figures and faces painted by Anna are expressionistic in spirit as a result of her deep psychological fascination in man. The brilliantly captured gestures, grimaces and emotional states, as if with feminine intuition, are a real gallery of the most diverse dreams, depressions, ridiculousness, pride, sometimes reflection and melancholy. Moreover, these images of men and women are a clear sign of the artist’s distress: our modern life in mega cities means passing by hundreds and thousands of human faces, every one of them with its history, drama and individuality. A mass character of modern culture and our limited perceptions exclude any personification of this unique stream of information. Suffice it to make a simple exercise: how many faces seen during the last underground or bus journey are still in our memory? Have they given us some important information? Emotion? Fascination? Anna Bocek tries to extract from this magma what is the most interesting to an artist: differentiating, individual and outstanding elements that form an icon in modern times. Unlike Andy Warhol, who only reproduced what was repeated and popular. Perhaps this is the reason why the painter is searching in expressionism for some communication techniques. With these strong means of expression, she wants to leave a permanent trace in her and the viewer’s memory. At the same time, she is perverse, ironic and witty, which adds true value to her studies of faces and figures. Her pictures also remain in one’s memory because they are very subtly based on deep archetypes of our consciousness. They use colour and light contrasts boldly, often drawing psychological or social situations of people depicted. However, her images are not journalistic: the painter deprives neither media men nor sociologists of their jobs. Rather from her work they can learn many interesting things about us: entangled in modern times like in an enormous, gigantic network of visual information. Painting means reflection, not production. This simple, though often forgotten truth, is brilliantly reminded by Anna Bocek. 29.06.2006