Juice, a handful of pills and some sun: most homes keep that kit for bad days. During the pandemic Karolina Jabłońska painted mostly in dark navy and green, then between lockdowns things brightened up. Getting better ended up on a round canvas because that way she could paint herself a sun, needed in a studio that was in a basement at the time. Juice runs down the chin, pills sit in the open palm. In the collection the painting has kept exactly that job: it hangs where you look when you feel low.
The painter
Karolina Jabłońska (born 1991) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and co-founded the Potencja group. She paints the body from inside the feeling, often her own, enlarged and pushed past comfort, with colour cold or warm enough that you sense the temperature coming off the canvas. She took second prize at the Bielska Jesień painting biennial and has shown at the Museum of Modern Art and the Raster gallery in Warsaw.