Paulina Krajewska
Creator of icons and landscapes filled with silence, illustrator
An artist full of true passion, Paulina Krajewska, paints “miniature” icons, which have already become printed in the hearts of many of their viewers. They have been presented at numerous exhibitions and have found homes in many private collections across Poland and abroad.
The artist works in silence — this is an echo of her prayer deriving from the Mystery hidden in the Holy Scriptures. Her approach to icons is totally different than the one of the classic Russian or Byzantine schools. Even though she employs traditional icon painting craft — the roughness of a lime board overlaid with linen and bole linked with the freshness of manually ground paints, she managed to develop her own style of portraying passages from the Old and the New Testament. The small dimensions of her paintings and tiny miniature shots depicted on them gently prompt the viewer to contemplation. The icons’ simple design, as well as meagre measures applied in their creation along with deliberate renouncement of gilding — so typical of traditional icons — not only testify to a unique and individual style of the artist, but also encourage to take a closer look at the unguessed, divine world depicted on the pages of the Bible and try to find it in every human heart.
The artist graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts in 2001. She is the author of illustrations to the book entitled “Opowieści Dengbeżów. Baśnie i bajki kurdyjskie” (Stories of the Dengbêj. Kurdish fairy tales), for which she received an honourable mention in the “Książka Roku” (The Book of the Year) competition.
Her icons have also been used on covers of books on spirituality by Father Andrzej Muszala.
In 2020, the Tyniec Benedictine Publishing House published a book of poetry entitled “Światłość Prawdziwa” (True Light) by two authors: Paulina Krajewska and Hieronim St. Kreis OSB. In the publication, the artist’s icons were presented together with the Word in a beautiful poetic form called by Hieronim St. Kreis OSB “echo-e”.
In her free time, the author enjoys calligraphy. She is fascinated not only by the beauty of the hand-written letter, but also values its spiritual and meditative assets.
The author exhibited her works at the following exhibitions:
Warsaw Archdiocesan Museum, 2020
“BWA u Jaksy” Gallery, Miechów, 2020
Tyniec Benedictine Abbey Museum, 2019
Dominican Friary, Służew, Warsaw, 2019
“Dobre Miejsce” Catholic Culture Centre, Warsaw, 2019
“Dom Praczki” Modern Sacred Art Gallery, 2019
Supraśl Icon Museum, “Nowa Epifania Piękna” (New Epiphany of Beauty) Exhibition, 2019
“2 Światy” Gallery, Krakow, 2019
Warsaw University Library, a collective exhibition, 2018
Minsk, Belarus, a collective exhibition, 2018
„New Era Art” Gallery, Krakow, 2017
Krakow Archdiocesan Museum, 2017
L’viv National Museum, Nowica International Icon Artists Exhibition, L’viv, Ukraine, 2017