FLIGHTEnd of a chapter / beginning of a chapter. The FLIGHT exhibition is a kind of summation of the last 10 years of Anna Carpenter’s work, while also opening up a new era of multi-disciplinary activity.

10 years of adventure with acrylics. As the artist says: It’s as exciting as discovering new lands—working with a medium so different from oil painting. This stage began in 2010. The colours in her paintings gain even greater intensity. It was also then that the central theme of her painting took its final shape—a theme she calls emotional abstraction: a non-figurative form of artistic response to the phenomena around us. The paintings become a highly personal record of the emotional counterpart to the thought process. Even her constant inspiration from nature, present in the ongoing PARALANDSCAPES series, is expressed in a strictly abstract language. The viewer regains complete freedom of association and reflection.

Three-dimensionality in relation to the picture plane. Paradoxically, three-dimensional thinking dominates Anna Carpenter’s work—presumably due to her education and work as an interior and exhibition designer. At the FLIGHT exhibition, the previously shown TEMPTATIONS series is presented in an unusual way that invites, and even compels, viewers to enter the world of colour. The spatial installation also implies a changing relationship between the visual forms—their mutual interaction over time, brought about by the movement of the observer.

DANCING WITH WICKER. The exhibition is accompanied by a film presentation about the artist’s design experiments in the world of wickerwork. With respect for traditional craft, she seeks new ways of thinking about wicker—a material perfectly suited to current trends: natural, ecological, biodegradable, yet durable, flexible and user-friendly. Between 2014 and 2018, in collaboration with the Wicker Centre in Rudnik nad Sanem, several large-scale spatial wicker forms were created from Anna Carpenter’s designs.

For the artist, context is always important—the forms, place, colours, image and sound—as is the search for different means of expression: multimedia and multi-sensory experience. These will also feature in the exhibition. The experimental SOUND AND COLOUR THEATRE, active since 2013, presents a close integration and mutual inspiration between improvised music and painting. The project is co-created by musician Iwona Jędruch and visual artist Anna Carpenter. The latest iteration of the project will take place during the exhibition: a happening / concert featuring violin, gongs, singing bowls, percussion and idiophones, accompanied by a screening of Anna Carpenter’s film ENERGY OF COLOUR. The concept for the film emerged during an exhibition of her paintings at the Historic Metallurgical Works in Maleniec. It is also worth noting that the artist regards photography and film presentations as distinct, independent forms of artistic expression.