HOST

Julia Królikowska’s exhibition, HOST, showcases her latest paintings and folding-screen constructions within the historic interiors of Villa at 3 Wieniawskiego Street. This building, formerly housing the Institute of Hygiene and the Department of Microbiology, is soon set to become the new home of the Institute of Art History at Adam Mickiewicz University. Królikowska’s compositions, drawing inspiration from anatomy, botany, and the underwater realm, create fleshy, layered forms that seep through translucent chiffons and silks. When lit, her paintings seem to animate, changing and evolving as if revealing the inside of a body overgrown with coral. The title HOST alludes to a carrier, a digital server, and a site where past and speculative futures intersect. What if new organisms could develop from previous experiments? In the villa’s subdued lighting, amidst spotlights and folding screens, Królikowska’s works blend with the architecture, leading viewers through an interior alive with a new, painterly tissue. Julia Królikowska (b. 1992) – in her artistic practice, she explores issues of cultural norms and patterns, drawing inspiration from corporeality and organic forms. Her work engages with the concept of abjection. She lives and works in Poznań. Królikowska studied painting at the University of the Arts in Poznań, where she completed her diploma in 2017 in the studio of Professor Andrzej Zdanowicz. In 2024, she defended her doctoral dissertation “Composing Space” at her alma mater, where she currently works as an assistant professor. Her works have been exhibited, among others, at the Kobe Museum (Japan), BWA Wrocław Główny, Pawilon and Galeria Arsenał in Poznań, BWA Gallery in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Rondo Sztuki Gallery, CK Zamek in Poznań, The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, BWA Gallery in Piła, Art Gallery in Legnica, Wielka Zbrojownia in Gdańsk, Menza Gallery in Ústí nad Labem, the Women’s Time Foundation in Poznań, as well as in various non-institutional spaces. #kubaparissubmission HOST @sztuczny_element Julia Królikowska @julia_krolikowska Julia Stachura @neonli Marcin Sokalski Photography #kubaparis