Monika Panek. Phantasms and awakenings
Monika Panek creates an oneiric vision in her paintings – a dream-like representation, unreal space with preserved figuration. The artist evokes the dark, mystical state of an intimate and painful experience of grieving.
The phantasm, acting as a filter in the perception of reality, enables the artist to freely reconstruct her own experiences. This creative imagination transports them into another state of being, the painting. The phantasmatic image is a form of illusion, an unreal element hiding mysteries underneath layers of oil paint. In spite of its illusory nature, it is not an imaginary creation. It creates a make-believe scenario that refers to actual events. The phantasm does not exist without an awakening: the moment of ceasing to be within something that keeps one asleep. This key point is a border between the sleeper’s wish and his reality. What was initially a feeling, becomes a real object as a result of creative imagination. The awakening has made the artist take up a dialogue with a deceased one who, in the form of an image, lives within her, in her mind, is part of her secret self.
Monika Panek (born in 1988) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in 2013, obtaining a diploma with distinction from the Faculty of Art. She started doctoral studies at the school in 2014. She teaches in the inter-university art therapy programme, teaching drawing for 2nd-year students. Her activities include painting, drawing, photography and digital printing. Some of her national and international exhibitions include the Osten Biennial of Drawing in Macedonia, 12 and 13 International Autumn Salon of Art, 1 Pomeranian Biennial of Young Art, 5th Triennial of Painting, National Review of Young Art. In 2013 she received an honourable mention in the Galeria Zadra 4th Painting Competition in Warsaw.