2023
oil on canvas
80 x 105 cm
Starting bid: 5 000 zł
Martyna Borowiecka merges reality with the realm of imagination, presenting her own vision of femininity in dreamlike, illusionistic paintings.
The Lucky Fish Scale was painted between 2022 and 2023—a period marked by both geopolitical uncertainty and personal challenges for the artist. In this work, Martyna Borowiecka sought to imbue the painting with a magical function, a charm to dispel the world’s ills.
Created around the time of the winter solstice and Christmas, the painting took on the role of a symbolic wish for prosperity in the year ahead. Drawing from the Polish tradition of placing a carp scale in one’s wallet for good fortune, Borowiecka presents a personal interpretation of the still life genre, depicting a fish leaping into a coin purse. Despite the presence of golden coins, the composition does not limit itself to material wellbeing. Instead, it evokes the emotional warmth and intimacy of familial traditions during the holiday season.
Borowiecka’s trademark wit and irony emerge at the painting’s centre—in the form of a crimson droplet falling from an empty goblet. As in her other works, in which cups, teacups, and perfume bottles symbolise femininity—particularly the uterus—here, too, the goblet serves as a metaphor for the female body. A dark perfume bottle inscribed with “Boys lie” becomes a cautionary totem, a warning directed from the artist to other women.
Martyna Borowiecka (b. 1989) is a painter and a graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. She earned her doctorate in 2019. Her solo and group exhibitions have been presented at the Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu in Toruń (2024), the Municipal Gallery in Wrocław (2024), BWA Kielce (2019), the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2019), and Pamoja Goods in Kraków (2019).
She participated in the 18th Painting Triennial in Kaunas (2024) and the 18th SURVIVAL Art Review (2020). She was an artist-in-residence at the Pienków Art Residency (2018) and is a two-time Grand Prix winner of the Przedwiośnie competition (2014, 2019), as well as the 7th Triennial of Still Life (2015) and the Lubelska Spring Biennale (2021).
