Joanna Woś

Joanna Woś's artworks examine the topics of sexuality and power dynamics, and they are created in a dreamy style inspired by the elaborate symbolic language present in traditional painting. By referencing scenes from pornographic films and religious compositions from the Catholic tradition, Woś blends multiple perspectives and spaces into her canvases to depict female protagonists caught in several parallel psychological realities. Her paintings' spectral and figurative scene is full of emotional and narrative intensity. Instead of trivialising sex, Woś portrays its complex power, including its potential for manipulation, danger, and even death, as well as its connection to love and affection. Using a grisaille style and applying thin layers of oil paint, Woś's work evokes the erotic paintings of the 20th-century brother painters Pierre Klossowski and Balthus. The critical difference is that the female figure is not portrayed as a fetishised object but as a conflicted subject grappling with sexual and moral uncertainty.