ARTEFACTS

The post-competition exhibition of paintings and drawings by students will be accompanied by an exhibition of works by artists who also teach at secondary schools of art.

For the first time in the several-year history of the National Biennale of Drawing and Painting by Students of Secondary Art Schools, the most interesting, prize-winning and commended paintings and drawings by students will be accompanied by works by artists teaching at secondary art schools. The full name of the event is “Artefacts” – the National Exhibition of Works by Teachers of Artistic Subjects of Secondary Art Schools.
The display will consist of small forms, representing a variety of art disciplines, which have been created by more than a hundred teachers from art schools all over Poland.

The exhibition is curated by Agata Ruman, an artist, and deputy principal of the Julian Fałat Secondary School of Visual Arts in Bielsko-Biała, who is also the organiser of the biennale.

Agata Ruman:
As teachers, we accompany our students at the start of their creative journey, by presenting them with various challenges. These may include the creation of both large artwork and seemingly inconspicuous and yet extremely demanding small forms, which the students had to tackle while preparing for 'Artefacts'.
The presentation compiling the works by art teachers from different artistic centres serves as a backdrop for the exhibition of student artwork and, most importantly, it enables the students to become acquainted with the creative activities of their teachers and perhaps, more than once, to discover that they too are bona fide artists.


Both presentations in the halls of the Galeria Bielska BWA will be complemented by a small exhibition in the café club Aquarium. These will be the latest productions of the winner of the 15th National Biennale of Drawing and Painting by Students of Secondary Art Schools – Maja Sawicka, a graduate of the Leon Wyczółkowski National Secondary School in Bydgoszcz, and currently a student at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Art in Poznań, majoring in stage design.
The three exhibitions: a post-competition exhibition of students' achievements, an exhibition of works by teachers of secondary art schools and a solo exhibition of works by the young winner of the Grand Prix of the 15th Student Biennale (2022), will create an interesting space in Galeria Bielska BWA for discussions about the education of visual arts students.

Agata Ruman was born in 1985. She is a former student of the Julian Fałat State Secondary School of Visual Arts in Bielsko-Biała. In 2010, she graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (under the supervision of Professor Jan Pręgowski) and the faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the same university. In 2017 she completed a postgraduate course in Graphic Design at the Faculty of Graphic Arts and Painting of the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź (2017). In 2021, she obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Painting at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (supervisor Prof. Zbigniew Bajek). Since 2015, she has been a teacher at the Julian Fałat Secondary Art School in Bielsko-Biała.
She has held a number of solo exhibitions, including: “Shades of Time” (2023, 101 Project Contemporary Art Gallery and Auction House, Warsaw); “Impermanence of Time. Persistence of memory” (2021, ATH Academic Gallery, Bielsko-Biała); “Subjectification” (2021, AKCENT Gallery, Bielsko-Biała Art School Complex).

She has participated in group exhibitions in Poland and abroad and in the Visual Arts Festival in Bielsko-Biała (2018, 2022). Her works can be found in private collections in Poland and abroad.


Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała, ul. 3 Maja 11
“Artefacts”. The National Exhibition of Works by Teachers of Artistic Subjects of Secondary Art Schools
1 March - 7 April 2024 (lower hall)
opening: Friday, 1 March 2024, 11 a.m.

Read more about the post-competition exhibition of the 16th National Biennale of Drawing and Painting of Secondary Art School Students  >>
Read about Maja Sawicka’s exhibition “Painting”  >>