Bio
Dorota Łapa-Maik is a Polish contemporary artist based in Krakow. She creates expressive images using mainly the language of spontaneous abstraction and musical improvisation. She is interested in a holistic approach to man and world, in working with both the body and the subconscious content as well as in free expression.
She graduated from the Jagiellonian University at the Faculty of Spanish Philology and attended daily studies at the Academy of Photography in Cracow. She studied painting in the studio of Dr. Tomasz Wełna in Cracow, in 2012-2016. She was a co-founder of the photography collective led by Zbigniew Pozarzycki, in which she exhibited her works. She was also a participant in the Creative Visionary Program (2021-2022) led by Californian artist Nicholas Wilton.
Individual exhibitions:
2024 ‘Finding the Goddess’, curator Izabela Rogala, Defabryka, Warsaw
2023 'Painting the Soul’, curator Patrycja Ignaczak, Artshow, Warsaw
2023 ‘New Day’, Apteka Sztuki Gallery, Warsaw
2020 ‘Connections, Flows, Relations’, Galeria u Jezuitów, Poznań
2019 ‘Faraway Inner Journeys’ as part of the Main Program of Cracow Art Week KRAKERS, Tytano Foundation, Krakow
Chosen collective exhibitions:
2025 “Broken Wish”, Aedra Fine Arts, curator Michael Hanna, Atlanta, Georgia, online exhibition
2022 “Art inSpire Vol.8 Home Decor”, curator Agata Sztyber-Sławek, Przechodnia Gallery, Warsaw Spire, Warsaw
2022 “I’m an artist”, curator Monika Wanyura-Kurosad, Krakowski Magazyn Sztuki Hergon ArtBay, Krakow2022/2023 ‘Art inSpire Vol. 8’, curator Agata Sztyber-Sławek, Przechodnia Gallery, Warsaw Spire, Warsaw
2022 ‘I am an Artist’, curator Monika Wanyura-Kurosad, Krakowski Magazyn Sztuki Hergon ArtBay, Krakow
2021/2022 ‘Monumental’, curator Sergio Gómez, www.sergiogomezcurates.net
2021 ‘Minimalism and Expression’, Vinci Art Gallery, Poznań
2020 ‘Waiting for the Wind - Artists against Smog’, CSW Solvay, Krakow
Artist Statement
II love movement and improvisation. I am interested in the impulse coming out of the body, the shape that appears suddenly under closed eyelids.
What is important to me in my art is the spontaneous, subconscious act of creation. I look for the synergy of shapes, colors and movement. Free expression opens up space for me to express emotions. In my painting work, musical and dance improvisation is close to me. I consciously free myself from rules, allowing myself to experiment. The basis of my actions are relationships, a holistic approach to human and reality, and a deep sense that time is a valuable, non-renewable and fleeting resource. The beginning of my creative activity is an impulse driven by experience, process or chance. I am intrigued by subconscious content, hidden desires, internal complaints, causes of pain. When creating, I do not plan details, I do not recreate anything, but I trust intuition.
I took up art after many years of searching.
Dorota Łapa-Maik