CV

© Paweł Rakowski

Monika Walendziak SSA (1986), a visual artist with a background in art history, philosophy and religious studies. Her practice focuses on painting and spatial forms, engaging with the existential dimensions of creativity and the role of artistic practice in spiritual exploration.

Her works have been displayed in solo and group exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania and Denmark, and are part of private collections across Europe and beyond. Since 2017 she has worked regularly in Copenhagen, where she has been responsible for the design and execution of the chapel and wall paintings at Sankt Augustins Kirke.

She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Professional Member of the Scottish Society of Artists.

Artist member of Visual Arts Scotland. 

Represented by IKIKATA art gallery

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Grounded in an ongoing fascination with processes of life–death–life transformation and the idea of radical materiality—the belief that experiencing matter is experiencing wholeness—she places particular emphasis on the tactile qualities of painting materials.

Her abstract works are created using binders and dry pigments, building up primers mixed with sand, debris and dried organic remains. Overlaid with transparent, luminous colour, these layers form stratified structures reminiscent of archaeological and geological formations, offering insight into the delicate dynamics of circulating matter.

By treating geometric forms as a universal and elemental language of visual imagination, she opens a space for meditative reflection on the instability of the material world, and mutually interwoven and interactive layers of transformed erotic energies.

The works produced over the past few years reflect a gradual shift in the treatment of temporality in painting: from vertically layered spaces of kairotic experience, in which wholeness is encountered in an instantaneous now, to a sequential expansion of pictorial space unfolding within the experience of linear time.

Long, wave-like compositions with subtle tonal micro-transitions and quiet yet internally intense dynamics unfold gradually through repetitive layering. Created without preparatory sketches, they emerge directly through the process of painting, capturing a slow crystallisation of a sense of space-in-time.

 

 

1999-2003 Wojciech Gerson School of Fine Arts [Ogólnokształcąca Szkoła Sztuk Pięknych, Zespół Państwowych Szkół Plastycznych im. Wojciecha Gersona], Warsaw, Poland

2005-2010 History of Art, Master’s Degree, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland

  

2010-2013 Philosophy & Theology, Pontifical Faculty of Theology Collegium Bobolanum, Warsaw, Poland

2009-2013 Byzantine Iconography, College of the Christian East [Studium Chrześcijańskiego Wschodu], Warsaw, Poland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

 

2024: 

 ‘for the love and out of hatred for dying’, Ikikata.Art Gallery, Podkowa Leśna, Poland

 

2022:  

‘Does the Garden have to be destroyed?’ Kirketorvet, Aarhus, Denmark  

 

2018: 

 'Garden | Ogród', Matulka Gallery, Milanówek, Poland 

 

2014: 

'Matter and Light', The Meditatio Centre, London, UK

 

 

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

 

2026:

'Strata', WASPS Creative Academy, Inverness, Scotland

 

Summerhall Arts Group Show, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

'Holding Conversations : part two', Custom Lane Gallery, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

2025:

'The Thread that Pulls', Visual Arts Scotland Biennial, Royal Scottish Academy - National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland 

 

'NOWA FORMA 5.0', Ikikata Art Gallery, Podkowa Leśna, Poland 

 

'The Land', Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, Scotland

 

Borders Art Fair with Visual Arts Scotland, Kelso, Scotland

 

2024:

The Society of Scottish 126th Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy - National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

Art Market Budapest: Ikikata Art Gallery, Millenaris, Budapest, Hungary

 

'ODPADY / WASTE', Ikikata Art Gallery, Podkowa Leśna, Poland

 

'Now & Then' Visual Arts Scotland Centenary Show Part Two, Dalkeith Palace, Scotland 

 

MoBU International Art Fair of Bucharest: Ikikata Art Gallery, RomExpo Central Pavilion, Bucharest, Romania

2023:

20th Warsaw Art Fair: Ikikata.Art Gallery, EXPO XXI, Warsaw, Poland

 

The Society of Scottish Artists 125th Annual Exhibition, Maclaurin Art Gallery, Rozelle Estate, Ayr, Scotland 

 

Warsaw ArtShow, Fabryka Norblina, Warsaw, Poland

 

'IS IT STILL (A) LIFE?', Ikikata Gallery, Podkowa Leśna, Poland

2022:

The Society of Scottish Artists 130 Years | Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

19th Warsaw Art Fair: Ikikata.Art Gallery, EXPO XXI, Warsaw, Poland

 

'Kolonia artystyczna Podkowa Leśna', Centrum Kultury i Inicjatyw Obywatelskich - Pałacyk Kasyno, Podkowa Leśna, Poland

2020:

'Beyond the Surface', Ikikata Art Gallery, Podkowa Leśna, Poland

 

2019:

'Zamlynnia', The Palace of Art, Lviv, Ukraine

'Zamlynnia', Volhynian Museum of Icons, Lutsk, Ukraine

2018:

'Mass of the Night River', St Matthew's Church of Scotland, Perth, Scotland 

2017:

'Darkroom Tales', Ice Factory, Perth, Scotland

'Nature', University of Edinburgh, Scotland

'Torah in Byzantine Iconography'
- Art Gallery, Lutsk, Ukraine

Exhibition following the 7th International Meeting of Iconographers, Zamlynnia, Ukraine

2016: 

Democratic Camera Club Exhibition 'Ideas of Beauty', Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland 

‘Peacemakers’: 
- Regional Museum, Kovel, Ukraine
- Dubno Castle, Ukraine
- Regional Museum, Kremenets, Ukraine

- R_z Gallery, Rzeszów, Poland

- KIK, Warsaw, Poland

- Debiut Gallery, Gdynia, Poland
 

‘Sacred Art in Volynia’, B.Biegas Gallery, Ciechanów, Poland

2015: 

‘Peacemakers’:  

- Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum, Lviv, Ukraine

- Art Gallery, Lutsk, Ukraine

Exhibition following the 5th International Meeting of Iconographers, Zamlynnia, Ukraine

College of the Christian East Annual Exhibition, St Joseph's Dominican Monastery, Warsaw, Poland

2014: 

'The Sacred Face', St John's Church, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

2012: 

College of the Christian East Annual Exhibition, St Joseph's Dominican Monastery, Warsaw, Poland

2011: 

College of the Christian East Annual Exhibition, St Joseph's Dominican Monastery, Warsaw, Poland

2010: 

College of the Christian East Annual Exhibition, St Joseph's Dominican Monastery, Warsaw, Poland

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS:

  

2020 - 2024

'Anastasis' Chapel, Sankt Augustins Kirke, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2020: 

Murals for Sankt Augustins Kirke, Copenhagen, Denmark

2019: 

Icon for St Mary's RC Church, Inverness, Scotland, UK

Wall paintings for Sankt Augustins Kirke, Copenhagen, Denmark

 

2018: 

Icons for Sankt Augustins Kirke, Copenhagen, Denmark 

 

2015: 

Icon for St Mary's RC Cathedral, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

 

 

RESIDENCIES:

 

2017: the 7th International Meeting of Iconographers, Zamlynnia, Ukraine, organised by: Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lutsk, National Association of Ukrainian Artists, Department of Ukrainian Studies of the University of Warsaw, Lviv National Academy of Arts, Association of Polish Artists and Designers 

 

2015: the 5th International Meeting of Iconographers, Zamlynnia, Ukraine, organised by: Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Lutsk, National Association of Ukrainian Artists, Department of Ukrainian Studies of the University of Warsaw, Lviv National Academy of Arts, Association of Polish Artists and Designers