“Flowers, women and angels” – Ewa Zeller’s exhibition
On Saturday, February 24, the Polish-Slavic Center at 177 Kent Str. in Brooklyn hosted an individual exhibition of the famous painter Ewa Zeller and a concert of the pianist and vocalist Janusz Smulski.
At the exhibition, Ewa Zeller shows the three topics that interest her most: flowers, women and angels. Ewa paints in a naturalistic style, relying on color and form as the main carriers of the message. When painting flowers, he slowly moves away from naturalism, turning them into decorative compositions.
Apart from symbolic scenes, he prefers portraits, still lifes and landscapes. He portrays women most often from nature. He also paints angels, including women.
Her European heritage shines through in her painting, and she is infatuated with the art of “Young Poland”, Jan Stanisławski, Alfons Karpiński and Stanisław Wyspiański. Her works include oils, acrylics and water paints. It was no accident that Ewa presented 44 works, because the sum of these numbers, 8, is a symbol of success, perfection and is associated with financial prosperity.
Ewa Zeller was born in Poland. In 1998, she graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, master’s degree in conservation and protection of cultural property, then completed postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology in the field of cultural landscape protection. She worked in the state monument protection services in Białystok, developing catalogs of art monuments in the Białystok Voivodeship, conservation guidelines and giving opinions on monument renovation projects.
Since 2003, he has been permanently residing in the USA, engaged in artistic painting. She studied oil painting with such teachers as: Aleksandra Nowak, Gregory Perkel, as well as at art schools: PRATT Institute in Brooklyn, Arts Council of Princeton, School of Visual Arts in Chelsea and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia (PAFA).
Ewa took part in over 150 exhibitions, individual and group. Her works are in numerous private collections in the United States, as well as in the John Paul II Foundation in Rome.
She has won numerous awards in competition exhibitions in many renowned galleries. Since 2018, Ewa has been working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
This exhibition is a cross-section of her twenty years of painting activity in the USA.
In 2017, the Trenton City Museum asked the painter to participate in a group exhibition of American contemporary artists. She was represented by Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York and sponsored by World Wide Art in California.
Janusz Smulski, a Polish-born composer, pianist and vocalist who has been living in the USA since 1981, performed at Ewa Zeller’s opening.
He performed a concert of original songs about the metamorphoses of his stay in the USA. Much is about the color blue, i.e. blues, the transition from sadness to longing. . Janusz’s music refers to cultural and emotional maturity, love and parenthood, combining elements of jazz, blues and classical music. His compositions include songs based on a plot, the lyrics of which evoke nostalgia and reflection. He accompanied himself on the electric piano.
He studied at the Warsaw Academy of Music. Thanks to playing the trumpet, he began his adventure with jazz by playing in a traditional jazz band in Stodoła in Warsaw.
Currently lives in the USA. Author of many songs with his own texts, pianist, vocalist, arranger and studio musician. A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia at the Faculty of Music Pedagogy. . He also works as a vocal teacher in the School District of Philadelphia. Since 2013, he has been involved in the cabaret project “Odlot”, performing for the Polish community in New Jersey and Pennsylvania together with the Polish activist and artist Ryszard Druch.
Many enthusiasts of their art came to Ewa Zeller’s opening and Janusz Smulski’s concert.
The evening was hosted by Jakub Polaczyk, Director of the CPS JP2 Senior Center in Manhattan, and the Polish-Slavic Center was represented by Director Zbigniew Solarz and his wife Katarzyna. The exhibition will be open until March 23.
Text and photos: Zosia Zeleska-Bobrowski
