Zoltaszek’s works are portals into abundant, colourful spaces assembled from memories, imagined vistas and eclectically collected reference material. She draws heavily on her early life experiences.
“I grew up in a brutalist tower block, surrounded by the drab reality of an Eastern Bloc city. The winters were long and grey, cracked concrete swallowing the city whole. It was loveless. At the same time, my family home was full of colour, breaming with collected items and found treasures, trinkets precariously stacked on top of one another. In my young self, amidst that tension, a seed was planted. A restless search for beauty and meaning began. Thus I became an artist.”
Consequently, her paintings speak to how we create outer extensions of ourselves and find refuge there. “It can happen through curating our environment, through stories, through choosing what and how we see what’s around us. I want my paintings to be windows, a portal, a crumb of calm, a refuge. I want to use means that are sometimes dismissed in the world of art as banal, I want to use them intentionally to create something meaningful and something that can feel like we can step into the frame and weave our own story”. Zoltaszek’s works are brimming with colour. A rich plethora of hues and patterns are carefully placed; dynamic brushstrokes reveal fleeting shapes that evoke both raw joy and contemplation.
The worlds in Zoltaszek’s paintings are not governed by conventional perspective — they combine multiple vantage points, introducing a sense of constructed reality. Theres a cast of characters, animals and people leisurely frequenting her paintings. There’s atmospheric places, at times sense of strangeness and magic, there’s abundance of cherished objects and botanical motifs.
“On a formal level, I focus on the emotionality of colour and contrast bold, dynamic brushstrokes with delicately layered glazes. The paintings often reference elaborate patterns and art forms that occur naturally in nature.
My working process embraces flow. I start with an idea, but then I lean into the process and let the painting take me on a journey — it almost unveils itself. It’s a conversation.”
