Modesta Gorol and Jan Kozlowski: Resident Artists from Wroclaw, Poland
Modesta Gorol and Jan Kozlowski were resident-artists at the UT School of Art during the month of September 2023. They are the latest artists in an exchange program between the School of Art and the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, Poland. The exchange, which has been running for more than 15 years, allows two students from each program to spend a month as Artists-in-Residence at the other institution. Through this arrangement two UT graduate students spend four weeks in Wrocław each May and June, and two Geppert Academy students come to Knoxville each September. In spring 2023, UT Knoxville MFA graduates Haley Takahashi and Zoe Brester-Pennings spent a month in Wroclaw.
Gorol and Kozlowski presented The Journey into Microscopic Realms and Imagined Landscapes, an exhibition of their work at Gallery 1010 (in the Emporium Building, 100 South Gay Street, Knoxville) on September 22 and 23.
Gorol is a graphic artist based in Wrocław, Poland, where she is currently pursuing an MA in graphic arts at the Geppert Academy. In addition to being a visual artist, Gorol is also a pianist, having received her master’s degree in piano performance from the K. Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław. This background equips her with a unique perspective that she brings to her art. As an artist, she primarily uses traditional techniques, such as etching, aquatint, and linocut, and she also sometimes likes to combine them with watercolor painting.
“Through my art, I am telling a story that transports the viewer into the world of my imagination,” said Gorol. “I am inspired by nature, but my artistic decisions are not bound by the limitations of reality. Anything can happen on a white piece of paper, and I relish the challenge of filling it with ideas.”
Kozlowski was born in 1998 in Wrocław and is currently a graduate student studying at the Geppert Academy, creating linocuts in intaglio studio under Przemysław Tyszkiewicz and Agata Gertchen. In 2023 his work was included in the 15th Gielniak Graphic Arts Competition.
“My projects mostly oscillate in the range of abstract art,” said Kozlowski. “This could be a real-life image which is rendered to a state of being unrecognizable through abstract manipulations. While based in linocut methods, my approach is informed by Brett Weston’s photographic works, which often shift between representation and abstraction. My use of linocut departs from the common look of the medium, seeking to create softer effects through the use of detailed textures, to create compositions with minute, stone-like textures.”