On 6 December, the City Gallery will showcase the full spectrum of Kasia Kmita’s multidimensional work. Her Layers exhibition features works produced using the cut-out technique, as well as paintings, photographs and large-format installations
Kasia Kmita is an artist working primarily with the cut-out technique. Her compositions are inspired by traditional Łowicz cut-out patterns, “gwiozda” (snowflake) and “korda” (round). They vibrate with colour and skilfully combine folk art with elements of contemporary pop culture, featuring well-known personalities from television, music and art, as well as anonymous figures. In her art, Kmita draws on both popular cultural events and the most banal episodes of everyday life. Characteristically, the artist also uses symbols of contemporary visual culture appropriated by consumerism and digitalisation. However, portraits are Kmita’s main area of artistic focus. She explores this theme not only in her cut-out pieces, but also in her paintings that imitate cut-outs in their form.
The highlight of the Layers exhibition is a three-dimensional view of the centre of Wrocław, based on the legendary 1562 city plan “Contrafactur der Stadt Breslau” by the Weihner father and son. The curator of the exhibition, Mirosław Jasiński, comments on the work as follows: As Kasia Kmita has revealed, her work depicts the Wrocław that she herself would like to see today – she has juxtaposed buildings that define the city’s space but existed at different historical moments. Many of them have never met. Thus, the plan will be quite a puzzle for visitors to solve.
Also on display is part of an elaborate installation from the exhibition titled Hello Helka. A Novella for Paper and War, which was held at the Warsaw Uprising Museum in 2021. For the paper dolls, which graphic designer Janina Giedroyć-Wawrzynowicz made for her daughter Rosa during the occupation, Kasia Kmita designed models of tenement houses and their interiors, including all the furnishings.
The exhibition is on view until 4 January 2025.
Curator: Mirosław Jasiński