“Poetry of my looking at civilizations”

In this short, but so meaningful phrase, we will find a key to understand Mariola’s art. This Polish artist, who one day decided to settle down in Portugal, a place where Luso-Brazilian and Luso-Arab cultures meet, demonstrates openly her interest and knowledge of Indian culture aiming as well for the art that represents icons and symbols taken from their mythology. In her paintings, emanating with feminine sensibility, we can come across numerous references to the myth of the “Great Mother”, present in so many primitive societies and constituting the ancestral root of common beliefs as well.

The artist completed architecture studies in Poland, then she studied art in Italy. She expanded this knowledge with further education within ethnography and mythology fields. The admiration of native cultures brought her to Morocco and Brazil, where she met Pi-Kiriri and Fulni- Ôs tribes. Furthermore, she explores various forms of artistic expression, paintings on traditional tiles (azulejo) and marble sculptures can be found among them.

All human beings, no matter where they come from, will be capable of participating in perceiving emotions and artistic sensations, independently of where they happen to be.

Margarida Pinto Correia (Gil Foundation), 2008

“People and roots” Exposition dedicated to the Gil Foundation

“(…) For the power of colours. For the universe of lights, for the will of creation of this World, because this work opens our windows”.

Alicja Tylmann/ “Szpak” Magazine, 2008, Szczecin, Poland

“(...) Her paintings occur to be a combination of contemporary esthetics and figurative tradition inspired by primitive art icons. The result is an explosion of force resulting from simplicity of forms and strong colours’ energy(…)”.

Júlio Quaresma/ "Caras" Magazine/ October 26th, 2002, Portugal

With the use of registers and lineages, in a clear search for meanings and icons, Mariola territories the universe and sends us back to the hunting cultures of Superior Paleolithic and to the children’s way of writing.

Being an admirer of primitive cultures, from their prehistoric up to the indigenous manifestations, the artist in her work refers to the transitory dictionary of these ancestral cultures’ symbolism.

Rodriguez Vaz/Correio de Manhã/February 16th, 2000, Portugal

“(...) once again she reveals herself in painting, so serene and delicate at the same time, in which a strength of her native country culture can be seen, trying to discover what is remarkable in the simplicity and the beauty of the most common things, which, by being a part of our daily routine, should be equally glorified. We are dealing here with an art that in a colour looks for a pretext to create, which, by evoking every time the freedom of formal expression, becomes more and more attractive (…)”.