“STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART” — ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARIANNA SZTYMA — VERNISSAGE

Marianna Sztyma — painter and illustrator. She studied at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Arts in Poznań. Author of press illustrations, she worked for most Polish magazines and newspapers. Since 2012 she has been engaged in book illustration, mainly for children. For her illustrations she was distinguished and awarded in the competition of the Polish Section of IBBY, in the competition of the Polish Society of Book Publishers, at the Bolognachildren'sBook Fair. Her illustrations could be seen at retrospective individual exhibitions: in Legnica at the Satyrykon Gallery (2021), in Opole at the MBP ZAMOSTEK Gallery (2022), in Ostrow Wielkopolska at the Ostrow Cultural Center (2023), during the Poznań Book Fair at the exhibition from the series “Masters of Illustration” (2024) and also in Reykjavik, Berlin, Bologna and Dublin. He also draws short comics, designs covers and posters. It works mainly analog, on paper. It uses brushes, crayons, sprays, paints, pencil. With her friends in the collective POL_SZTYMA_WOLNA she creates collections of plates and vases. He lives in a small village in the Jizera Mountains.

The key to the exhibition will be feelings and emotions. We will show the original illustrations to “The Frog” (about mourning) and “The Weavers of the Clouds”, about how to cope with the loss and the emotions that accompany it. There will be illustrations from “Link in a Mouse City”, which tells about coping with a parent's depression and illustrations from the book “A Fairy Tale of Anxiety” by Agnieszka Jucewicz. The exhibition will also include prints from the author's book PUSTKA — also about the loss and the second book by ZAJĄCZKA. It will also be about the joy and friendship that a bond with a dog gives, i.e. illustrations from “Lotta” and “Drania” by Zosa Stanecka. There will be illustrations from the book “How I Became a Witch” by Dorota Masłowska.