Paulina Semkowicz - Conversation Piece

Scene 3

INT. GALLERY – EVENING

The vernissage. A crowded room hums with the sounds of chatter, clinking glasses, and footsteps echoing off the painted walls. People wander through the dim, warm light, admiring the artworks.

The space is filled with elements juxtaposed with painted walls in light pink, brown, white, and pale green. Canvas pieces hang sporadically, blending into the scene. Together, the walls and canvas create a fragmented, ironic landscape — a “conversation piece”. Dead, yet teeming with movement and context.

The walls feature a mix of abstract designs and semi-baroque elements. Here, a draped curtain. There, an ornament sprawling across half a wall— abruptly cut off.

WALL #1

(whispering, with dry irony)

They all look very artificial to me.

ELEMENT #1

(thoughtful, bemused)

I think they are... but they don’t know about it. It’s kind of odd.

ELEMENT #2

(chuckling)

I’m having a lot of fun listening to them.

WALL #1

(curious)

What are they talking about?

ELEMENT #2

(smirking)

Mostly us... and themselves.

CANVAS

(irritated)

It’s ridiculous.

WALL #1

(mocking)

What is ridiculous?

CANVAS

(deadpan)

This whole arrangement is ridiculous.

ELEMENT #2

(playful, almost singing)

It feels organic to me. I feel quite intimate and free.

(pause)

I could start singing.

CANVAS

(rolling its eyes)

Blah...

WALLS #1 AND #2

(gleeful, overlapping)

...but how delighted I am

that you’ve been lured to visit...

The atmosphere grows darker, as though the room has slipped back in time unnoticed. Visitors continue their murmured conversations and sip their drinks. - Agnieszka Dmochowska

Paulina Semkowicz

Paulina Semkowicz lives and works in Vienna.
Her experience as a theatrical painter has inspired her interest in large-scale works, realized directly on walls as painting installations.

Merging traditional painting with immersive spatial art, she transforms surfaces into dynamic narratives, engaging viewers in the interplay between art and architecture.

She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and FBAUP, Portugal.
She exhibited at VIN VIN, Vienna; Galerie Laetitia Gorsy, Leipzig; Austrian Culture Forum, Warsaw; Galeria Presença, Porto, Belvedere 21, Vienna.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection)

Current:

January - February 2025

. Conversation Piece, VIN VIN Vienna / Naples, Vienna, AT

2024

. EVN Sammlung, Vienna, AT

. BAIN-MARIE, VIN VIN Vienna/Naples, Vienna, AT

2023

. Behind, Project Room, Galeria Presença, Porto, PT

2019

. Bathing Suit and Surroundings, She Bam! Galerie, Leipzig, DE

. Painting Descending, Tower, Vienna, AT

2012

Warsaw,PL

. Outpouring/Wynurzenie, Unus-Una-Unum project, FPSW/Program Gallery,

2011

. Personal View, Galerie A Suivre..., Bordeaux, FR

2010

. Night Rider/Nocny jeździec, Fundacja Atelier, Warsaw, PL

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selection)

2024

. Moon, she said..., Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, AT

2023

. TO BE SOMEBODY, Ansa Voir, Vienna, AT

. BEČ BIJELJINA, Vienna Design Week, Vienna, AT

. Bijeljinale, Gallery of the Cultural Center "Semberija", Bijeljina, BIH

. Until the thread breaks, Kunstverein Baden, AT

2022

. Across myself, Kunstmatrix/online, curated by Les Nouveaux Riches Magazine

. Art for Ukraine, online Auktion, The Auction Collective, London

. Image fétiche, Galerie Stephanie Kelly, Dresden, DE

2021

. Kleine Liebe (Little Love), project with She BAM! Galerie, Leipzig, DE

. APPENDIX, She BAM! Galerie, Leipzig, DE

2020

. Haus Wien, Simmering, Vienna, AT

. UNCHAIN #2, WAF Galerie/Kunstbüro, Vienna, AT

2019

. BobscheCombo,AustrianCultureForum,Warsaw,PL Breathless Dromedary curated by Mauve, In Spite of, Porto, PT

. Alter Ego 2, Pryzmat Gallery, Krakow, PL

. Framers (idle hands) within the exhibition Über das Neue, SORT/ Belvedere21, Vienna, AT

2018

. En Plein Air, STUDIOLI, Rome, IT

. The Eventuality Dispenser, MAUVE at Fettes College, Edinburgh, UK

2017

. Die neue linie, Bar du Bois, Vienna, AT

. Worry stone, a diary, Mauve, Vienna, AT

2016

. Contemporary Art/ Charity Caritas Auction, Dorotheum, Vienna, AT

. Die sonderbare Gegenwart zu zweit (two as one in two and one without), __Tim Nolas, Vienna, AT

2015

. Sharing Space, Alte Post, Vienna, AT

. THE WALK, Via dell'Osservatorio, Ercolano (Naples), IT

. Cementa 15, Contemporary Arts Biennal, Kandos, NSW, AUS REPEAT/ PERSONA, POROUS SPACE, Wielandgasse 16, Vienna, AT

2014

. Everything you always wanted to know about freedom, but were afraid to do, WILD HORSES Studiogaarta Pracownia, Kraków, PL

. The Walk, gta Exhibitions, HIL, Hönggerberg, ETH Zurich, CH

2013

. Critical Games, Sudlab, Naples, IT

. Wasser Schöpfen/ZAGRABITI, HDLU Ring Gallery, Zagreb, HR

. Betreten verboten?, Quartier Q / Quelle, Nuremberg, DE GEGENSÄTZE, Justizministerium, Dersden, DE

. Art-Object-Registration 5/Sztuka-Obiekt-Zapis 5, galeria Prexer-Uł, Łódź, PL

. K jak Kosmos, Galeria Łącznik, Krakow, PL

. ERDENREST, Cellar Gallery, Krakow, PL

2012

. Unter dem Nebel, Uber dem Wasser, Demmering Str. 74, Leipzig, DE

. Syndicat Potentiel, Strasbourg, FR

. Osmoza Rundgang Exhibition, Halle14, Spinnerei, Leipzig, DE

. Semaine de l’Art, Pauillac, FR

2011

. The D.Project – Mise en Abyme, Labor Gallery, Budapest, HU

. The D.Project, installation in Fogasház, Budapest, HU

. Language is a virus, Galeria Strefa A, Krakow, PL

. Inny, Cellar Gallery, Kraków, PL

2010

. The D.Project, Gdańska Galeria Miejska/Gdansk, PL, Bottega Gallery/ Kiev, UA

2009

. Woman Ahead, Cellar Gallery, Kraków, PL

. The D. project, Koloni Gallery, Dresden, DE

. European Oksasenkatu Residency, exhibition at Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki, FIN

2008

. Anonymus Drawings No 9, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin, DE

. Diaries of the Tamagotchi Generation II, Klima Bochenska Gallery, Warsaw, PL

. MARGINAL!, Galeria Szewska 36, Wroclaw, PL

2007

. TRAFIONA-ZATOPIONA, PGR ART Kolonia Artystów, Gdańsk, PL

. Widzimisie, pop-up exhibition, Starowislna 17, Krakow, PL

2006

. Debiuty 2006 – Best Diplomas of Academy of fine Arts in Kraków, Pałac Sztuki, Kraków, PL

2005

. Look in the mirror/Olha-te ao espelho!, Galeria FBAUP, Porto, PT