Wild Shape, Light Steps

Kinga Bartis’ work is deeply rooted in philosophical and psychological frameworks that question how human beings navigate and understand our sense of self whilst perceiving the world around us. Set against this intellectual background, Bartis’ evocative and emotive paintings, thus, explore recurring themes of body, mind, self-perception, and identity, as well as sexuality and underlying hidden power structures. The strong emotions and feelings, generated as a result of Bartis’ exploration of these themes, can often be felt as they pulsate towards the viewer. Their presence does not, however, suggest a specific direction that Bartis wishes us to follow but rather evokes a mood or a feeling, ultimately creating a platform through which discussions are encouraged.

In her compositions, characterised by a distinctive use of colour and texture, Bartis often sets aside traditionally defined relationships, or perceived hierarchies, between foreground and background. Repeated imagery of bodies, figures, plants, natural elements and landscapes combine to reflect the realities of a shifting world. Often blending one into the other, the resulting ambiguity provides a backdrop for the aforementioned characters to ebb and flow, almost moving subtly on the canvas, revealing themselves organically. Bartis, thus, envisions painting as a means of breaking free from the habitual ways of defining our being, instead, rather, looking towards a multidisciplinary, open approach. By doing so, Bartis invites us to abandon our traditional ways of interpreting painting and instead shift our focus to the artist’s unique visual world that calls for cohesion across species and ecosystems.

With light, soft brushstrokes Bartis gives body to a world in flux, creating a welcoming space between the work and the viewer. This space allows us to contemplate our own feelings (of longing for cohesion and love) while it also leaves room for the anxiety and fear that, inevitably, tend to slip in in the wake of flowing emotions. The introspective and reflective nature of Bartis’ paintings, thus, deals with the complexity of emotional life, highlighting questions concerning psychological vulnerability and mental well-being in a crisis-ridden contemporary world.

In conjunction with one of her exhibitions at PADA Studios, Lisbon, Bartis offered an interesting insight into her practice (in a 2020 conversation with fellow artist Mark Jackson):

I don’t have visions but I translate sensations and feelings, moods into images in my head. As long as I can remember I always tried to describe feelings with images […] So I still try to be as basic as possible with the motives, but more complex and ambiguous through the way of presenting them. I do a very small sketch, then this image usually generates a color palette, or sometimes I already have in mind, a color or a duo of colors. So the sketch is mostly about the composition of the colours and the motives. But then just by switching to paint, a lot of the elements get altered, more open, organic and many transformations occur. I usually pay attention to what the material suggests, how the canvas is responding, how the colors are playing together and how they generate the shapes and forms on the painting. All this is open inside the concept. The concept I usually have beforehand. I don’t like the word concept, maybe framework or universe or a mental space. Change is very important. They all change and one painting generates the other. I used to think that my works were very static - maybe they still are. But the practice definitely has a movement. It is a bit like aging, you can’t see it from day to day but looking back you say, oh god, I changed since!

Provenance

Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, 16 - 22 June 2025.

Firestorm Foundation (acquired from the above).