An Artist Statement
In my recent works, I explore various ways of observing and visually comprehending the weather through direct (human sight) and indirect means (e.g. satellite imagery.) Ultimately, in the process of making these works, issues such as our ambivalent relationship to climate change, concepts of weather modification, and the human drive to control natural phenomena resurfaced and provided more focused direction to my formal manipulations with materials and tools. The artworks are mostly mixed media drawings on paper or panels that formally explore indexical shapes of clouds in combination with meticulously layered symbolic signs of targets or molecular formulas of greenhouse gasses. Furthermore, the variety of color shapes, as well as the symbolic and expressive marks and lines, are inspired by surface weather analysis data codes. I think of them as abstracted snapshots of cloudscapes visibly marked with human activity. They express my worries and anxieties about what science and data reveal – the undeniably harmful consequences of human impact on the quality of air and life on earth.
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Kalina Winska grew up in Poland. She earned her MFA from The Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw in 2009 and The University of Florida, Gainesville, FL in 2012. As a recipient of Socrates-Erasmus Scholarship, she went to study in Germany at the Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) in Spring 2007. Kalina has actively exhibited her works in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, California, Colorado, Vermont, Virginia, Michigan, New York, Poland, Germany, Canada, and Japan. She was featured in Studio Visit Magazine twice and was awarded to attend numerous international artist residencies such as Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, T.A.K.T Kunstprojektum Berlin, Germany, Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, Kingsbrae International Residence for the Arts, NB, Canada, and Studio Kura in Fukuoka, Japan. For over eight years, she taught drawing and foundation level courses as an Associate Professor of Art at Valdosta State University in Valdosta GA. The artist currently lives and works in Seattle, WA.