Helena Stiasny
Helena Stiasny (b. 1997, Warsaw) is a painter, photographer, and illustrator. She holds a Master’s degree from the Faculty of Graphic Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her work explores the role of women in contemporary society, focusing on the subject-object dynamic in female imagery. Through bold, introspective painting, she reclaims the female figure as protagonist and critiques patriarchal norms. Her art addresses the tension between girlhood and femininity, blending personal experience with broader feminist discourse. Stiasny’s debut solo show was held in 2019 at the Oranżeria Gallery in Radzyń Podlaski; the same year, her painting Pieta won a VeniceLands ArtPrize. In 2022, her exhibition Ja, Kobieta featured lectures on feminist theory. She has exhibited widely in Poland and abroad, including in London, Berlin, Bishkek, and South Korea with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute’s Masters of Polish Illustration.
Suburban Tales
Belgian suburbia seems to be a surreal place. Dozens of small houses, all shutters sealed, but the tiny gardens flourish. Not a single imperfection in the picture. Enigmatic remnants of the mines turned into houses of high culture. Puzzling veiled figures walk or drive by.
As an outsider thrown into the neighborhood for a limited time, I capture the sequence of emotions running through my head during my stay. From sadness and anger to curiosity and fascination. Suburban Tales is a collection of images inspired by the surroundings, where the real and everyday is interwoven with the fantastic imageries and the symbolic.
Perhaps it is more a landscape of the inner world than anything else, evoked by the ordinary but unusual surroundings and time to reflect on them.
