She was born on 9 July 1948 in Krakow. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow University of Technology and obtained the diploma in 1972. She is an academic teacher at the Independent Chair of Freehand Drawing, Painting and Sculpture of the Faculty of Architecture at the Krakow University of Technology. Joanna Stożek received her doctorate and post-doctoral degree in fine arts at the Faculty of Painting of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts (ASP). Her oeuvre includes several dozen of solo and group exhibitions in Poland and abroad (Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, the USA). She is a co-author of several stage designs (Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Teatr Wielki in Wrocław, Teatr Polski in Łódź, Opera Bałtycka in Gdańsk, Pandora Stage in Helsinki) and the author of sacral paintings in churches in Krakow, Radom and Detroit. Her works can be found in the collections of the Museum of History of the City of Krakow, in the Museum of Sopot, Antonio Peres Foundation in Cuenca in Spain and in private collections in Poland and abroad.

Major solo and group exhibitions of Joanna Stożek:
An exhibition accompanying the International Biennale of Architecture, Krakow 1985; and exhibitions in: Wayne State University, Detroit 1986; Format Gallery, Krakow 1988, 1993; Gallery of the Pandora Stage Theatre, Helsinki 1992; Presence Cracovienne Modern Art Gallery, Paris 1993; L’art Contemporain de Cracovie en Pologne Brussels 1994; Modern Kunstgalerie, Nuremberg 1996; Doree Gallery, Lyon 1996; Antonio Perez Foundation Museum, Cuenca 2000; Los Reales Alcazares “El Cuarto de Maestre”, Seville 2001; Piano Nobile Gallery, Krakow 2001, 2007; Plaza de Torros de las Ventas, Madrid, 2004; Modern Art Gallery “Uranga”, Bilbao 2004, 2005; Ciculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 2005; Museum of History of the City of Krakow, Krakow 2007; Museum of Sopot, Sopot 2008.

There is a lovely series of paintings by Wacław Taranczewski entitled “The Little Painter”. I often envisioned myself as this painting little girl, this little painter… Then… Today, years later, am I allowed to say that I have already become the “big painter”?... let me quote my coleagues, reviewers and critics of my art.

Joanna Stożek
Krakow, June 2010

“…The space presented in the paintings of Joanna Stożek, although made up of abstract, almost geometrical elements, becomes authentic owing to the rich pictorial matter. The abstract worlds depicted there give an impression that the artists has perceived them, as if her, at times uncanny, landscapes really existed...”

Jan Bruzda

“…In order to be a surrealist one has to possess a surrealist soul, one has to be immersed in the surreal condition. The paintings of Joanna Stożek present the climate of authentic surrealism, the aura of strangeness of existence, fear and anxiety of soul...”

Paweł Taranczewski

“…Opening of the exhibition of paintings by a Polish artist, Joanna Stożek, in Antonio Perez Foundation, has revolutionised the old Carmelite Monastery premises. …The mastery of Joanna Stożek will offer an important practical lesson for our young artists in Cuenca. It is an event of paramount importance...”

“El Dia” daily

More at www.stozek.art.pl

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