Emilia Kina’s paintings combine erudition and aesthetic appeal. Their sources are in lie in the theory of painting and depiction, but the essence lies in the relations between painting/image and painting/object. Here the Renaissance metaphor coined by Leon Alberti of the painting as a window takes on an intriguing contemporary form. Kina’s paintings call to mind screens, curtains and blinds, which like a room divider conceal the view. The figure of the window is treated here literally as a material frame, more an element of stage design than a frame from reality.
Equally important is the allusion to 19th-century studio photography. Painted views and drapery were used as a backdrop for portrait photos. This analogue engineering for constructing illusions particularly interests the artist. Focusing on the margins of depiction, of what is merely a frame for the proper view, what hides it or merely appears, Kina develop intriguingly her own programme for a new iconoclasm. Her relief compositions, painting/screens captivating in their material beauty, divert attention from the digital inflation of images and messages. In their place, they restore attention to a dimension of gazing that is intimate and free of violence.
Emilia Kina (born 1990) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 2015. She has regularly exhibited since then, among other things executing joint projects with Filip Rybkowski. Her works have joined the collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk. The exhibition at Raster is the artist’s first individual show in Warsaw.
