Magdalena Gluszak-Holeksa In-Conversation with Sarah White, live-streamed on 25 April 2022, and co-hosted by Morphē Arts and the Broadway Gallery, Letchworth Garden City. Magdalena discussed her time as artist in residence at the Broadway Gallery, during which she developed the body of work that formed her solo exhibition A Mountain, Too, Has Its Thoughts.‍

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The title of the exhibition is inspired by a quote from a book ‘The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World’ (1997, Abram, D.). The mountain in this context not only becomes a metaphor of a non – human language and animism, but also links back to an actual physical space of the region where Gluszak-Holeksa grew up – a place, which metaphorically becomes ‘the other’ and the unfamiliar. In these cinematic compositions, through the mix of darker shades of Prussian Blue, Ultramarine and Phthalo Green, combined with blurry highlights and fading objects, she aims to evoke a sense of “softening”, an edge of perception, which gives way to something what might seem like it belongs to a memory or to a place beyond our current awareness. More information about the exhibition here.
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Magdalena Gluszak - Holeksa (b. 1990, Poland) is a visual artist based in Hertfordshire. Through the process of painting and drawing she explores the human speculation of memory and familiarity as experienced in the pursuit of human identity and the ‘unknown’. Merging the lines between fiction and reality her works reflect a non – linear approach to the suggested narratives and metaphors. Recently an artist in residence at Broadway Studio Gallery in Letchworth. Her latest exhibitions include: ‘Correspondence 01’ at Broadway Studio Gallery & Exeter Phoenix Gallery (2021), ‘Re:store Re:new Re:imagine’, Willesden Gallery (2021), ‘Emergent Vision’, Safe house 1 (2020). Shortlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize (2019) and ARTIQ Art Graduate Prize (2019). Recipient of two ‘emerging artist’ grants from The Elisabeth Greenshields Foundation (2017, 2018). Features: Saatchi Art Rising Stars (2019) and Jackson’s Painting Prize Artist Interview (2019). www.magdalenagluszak.com‍

‍Sarah White is an interdisciplinary artist working across movement, performance, installation and writing, focusing on research across performance art and theology. Sarah completed her MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, and her BA at Aberystwyth University (Wales). She has worked for Morphē Arts since 2012 as an artist mentor and now visual arts curator. Notable projects include speaking at the Religion and Art Forum (UAL Chaplaincy Projects and Goldsmiths University - 2021); performing at The Swiss Church London for Exodysis I (2021) and working as artist in residence at The Round Room, Holborn with The Koppel Project (2020) www.sarahwhite.org.uk

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References in the talk:

- In The Beginning There Was Darkness: A Blind Person's Conversations with the Bible, John Hull

- Creation Through Christ by Norman Wirzba, Essay in Christ and the Created Order, Perspectives from Theology, Philosophy, and Science

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