Anna Ciba: When You Look Into My Eyes, What Do You See?

Free
Address ul. Foksal 11, Warszawa
Entry Free
Venue's website www.fundacjaarton.pl
Curator Zuzanna Wilska

Anna Ciba is an artist whose career developed promisingly in the 1980s, but came to an abrupt end at the beginning of the following decade. This exhibition at the Arton Foundation is her first since then, presenting previously unpublished archival material and her late, surviving works.

When you look into my eyes, what do you see?, Ciba asks in one of her paintings. The inscription is the first element of the composition – the second is the heart, situated centrally, slightly to the left, like in the human body. Two rays depart from the symbol, as if cartoonish smears suggesting a pulse. The painting is large, at least two metres high and over one metre wide. The exact size is unknown, as we only have a reproduction of the work in a black and white photograph from 1987. When You Look Into My Eyes, What Do You See? is a question about how to study and present the history of a forgotten artist whose work is largely inaccessible: paintings have been lost, performances were not documented, concerts were not recorded.

Anna Ciba was born in Warsaw in 1957. From 1982 to 1987 she studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Stefan Gierowski. She majored in the studio of wall painting. In 1987, after defending her diploma, she went on an artistic scholarship to Switzerland (Université de Genevé), where she developed her skills in the Department of Computer Graphics. At the turn of the decade, together with Katarzyna Sypień and Klaudia Burdzyńska, she set up the band Les Chattes en Or. She participated in group exhibitions (among others): Expression of the 1980s at BWA Sopot (1986), What’s Up? The Newest Art at the Norblin factory in Warsaw (1987), Women’s Painting at the Dziekanka Gallery (1987) and Freshly Painted. Young Polish Painting 1982–1987 at CBWA Zachęta (1988). Her selected individual exhibitions include White and Red Performance (1982) and Black and White (1985) at Pracownia Dziekanka, 7265 c.d. at Stodoła in Warsaw (1986); her last individual exhibition was held in the series Presentations of the Dziekanka Gallery at Wielka 19 in Poznań (1987). In the mid-1980s, the artist was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In August 2018, Ciba went missing, leaving her apartment in the Warsaw Old Town. She has not returned to this day.

Past events

Warszawa, Fundacja Arton Opening: When You Look Into My Eyes, What Do You See?

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