Joanna Latka

drawing printmaking installation

Stop-motion ……………………………………4

Good Factor ……………………………………30

The  Drawn  Space………………………………………51

The Neighbourhood…………………………65

In Stop-motion Joanna Latka retrieves the tradition of animation films from Poland, her home country, adapting the manual process for creating frames to engraving. She presents us a storyboard made up of monochromatic engravings where the figure and the induced motion are protagonists. In a stop motion register, this most recent work of hers reflects a freer and more spontaneous stage of Joanna Latka, concentrating her action on the raw material of her artistic creation: the matrix, the plate engraved in direct manner without resorting to the paper sketch. Salgadeiras Gallery, Lisbon 2013.

Salgadeiras Gallery, Lisbon, 21.11.2013 - 11.01.2014

Stop-motion I

etching, aquatint, 20x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, 20x40cm

Stop-motion II

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 20x40cm

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 20x40cm

and more…

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 40x40cm

etching, aquatint, lithografic pan, 40x40cm

This project explores the relational dimension between Art and Religion and the several problematics that might arise from it, while maintaining itself conscious about the surrounding territory, not only to its ‘audience’ with its particular social, religion and political contexts, but also to the monastery itself, which reflects the architecture and memory’s heritages of the Portuguese society. This monastery, although being managed by a national cultural institution, the local and religious communities continue to impose a strong connection, as the church is still used for catholic ceremonies and the parish priest continues to be one of its inhabitants. Another fact worth mentioning is that the city of Braga is one of the most conservative cities in Portugal. This monastery end ups on carrying not only the memories of Braga's society, but also the Catholicism’s evolution and power around the globe, since it was one of biggest supplier of missionaries for the Portuguese expansionism’s endeavour. As a result, this project has its source in a place with an enormous load, not only religious but also social, cultural, economic and political memory. Nevertheless, this project tries to purge the source that synthesizes this traditional religious fervour, and inserts itself in the problematic that these issues bring to life, between people and rituals, practices and doctrines, maintaining the possible confrontations between the local realities that develop global repercussions. “The constant negotiation between the local and the global, the foreign and the familiar, has become a basic condition of modernity” (Jean Fisher, 1992). Therefore, the core of this project is to create new ways of questioning and reframing the issues that substantiate the Self-being in its devoted nature, in order to raise a self-conscience of the reflecting and shifting power structures of religion and cult. In the structured context of the norms traditionally accepted in our society, it uncovers the parallel between obedience and transgression, and the resulting conflict of the different practices that breach and subvert the religious dogma. The program is question, materializes itself in two components, an exhibition and a discursive platform. Both seek to maximize the production of knowledge by confronting, in terms of interpretations, memories and testimonials, by recreating, revisiting and reformulating the contents, whether narrative or imagery, presenting several approaches to their effective relationship with virtue, sin, guilt and the divine. On the other hand, there is a confrontation within the paradox of the excess, the manipulative, the power, the quest and the propaganda, of the sense of the cult, with its processes of redemption, rather ascetics when facing the imperfection and the incapacity of being “faithful”. In this quest, there is an expectation of conjugating the confrontation with the incoherent, the polemic, and provocation and why not the profane, that so many heretics have produced along the world’s history. This exhibition will focus on the artistic production that grasps the different problematics that, in any way, connect or approach the concept that articulates itself between art and religion, between the art and the human being, the art and the sacred, the art and the profane, the art and the forbidden or the art and the Gods.  INES VALLE (curator), 2012.

GOD FACTOR - Braga, Portugal, Mosteiro de São Martinho de Tibães 10.11.2012 – 22.12.2012

Joanna Latka. 34 years. Woman. Polish. European. 2012 years after the birth of Crist. Portugal and Poland won’t be such distinct countries in what it concerns to the relation with the Church. Both are laic states, predominantly Catholics, with a strong Jewish-Christian tradition. Christ, God, Devil, the guilt, the sin, Good, and Evil, the rituals from the baptism to the matrimony, Death, Life – where one starts and the other ends - are more or less abstract concepts, which “reign” in this world of men, created by God on the 7th day, and also reign on the group of works that Joanna Latka is presenting in the «GOD Factor» exhibition. Joanna Latka had no Catholic education, and keeps her agnostic position in adult age, not ignoring, however, the presence of the Catholic Church both in the country where she was born, as well as the one in which she has decided to live and develop her artistic activity. In this series of drawings, in particular, Joanna Latka focus her approach on the relation between Women and the Catholic Church, and on the disparity that, throughout the centuries, they have been “convicted” by the canons of the Religion. Deep down, it’s this female condition that Latka re-interprets and depicts with her line of strong expressionist nature. The bride-woman, the serpent-woman, the sinner- woman, the mother-woman... If on the 7th day God created Man and Woman, it looks that, in many aspects, the Church has forgotten that the Humankind is made of two sexes, two genders, and that living on Earth would be better if it was based on the value of Equality.

ANA MATOS, Lisbon, 2012.

She did not wish to be a mother Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 74,5

Until death do us part Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 74,5

She and purity Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 74,5

Baby boom Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 84 cm

You will never be priest Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 85,5 cm

Adulteress Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 77 cm

The Lord's handmaidens Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 73 cm

Holy Confession Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 84 cm

Guilty Indin ink on paper 99,5 x 84 cm

'The Drawn Space' - LISABON, Salgadeiras Gallery, 11.2012

'The Drawn Space' is the artistic intervention that Joanna Latka developed on-site at the Salgadeiras gallery and submitted to the Design Triennial 2012 (Lisbon). In this set of drawings Latka explores the relationships of the gallery's interior and exterior along with everyday experiences that have played a constant part in her artistic career. The Drawn Space was featured in the Triennial under the proposed theme – “Do pensar ao desenhar” (from thinking to drawing).

The Drawn Space- Lisabone, Salgadeiras Gallery, 11.2012

Salgadeiras Gallery, Lisbon 1.7.2011 - 17.9.2011

‘The Neighbourhood’ by Gonçalo M. Tavares

The Neighbourhood' by Gonçalo M. Tavares Through the initiative 'Gallerist Owner For A Day', which began in 2008, this year the Salgadeiras gallery invited writer Gonçalo M. Tavares to prepare an exhibition based on the collections and artists who collaborate with the gallery. From the series 'The Neighbourhood', the exhibition features works of Claudius Garrudo, Helena Gonçalves, Jaime Vasconcelos and Joanna Latka in multiple interpretations and readings from Mr. Calvin, Mr. Breton, Mr. Juarroz, sr. Henri, among others. Literature and visual arts creative were involved in the same process and developed specifically for this occasion, along with a presentation of some unpublished works. Word is a particularly strong element in this exhibition organized by Gonçalo M. Tavares. From the works in the collection, new directions of interpretation and reading emerged from 'The Misters of the Neighborhood', leading to the production of other works as well as the discovery of already existing ones. Polish artist, Joanna Latka, recalls her first impression of Lisbon's neighborhoods – of clotheslines with white sheets hanging from the windows, recovered in this installation of blind emboss prints which intertwine her memory along with that of the writer's universe.

‘The Neighbourhood’ - Lisabone, Salgadeiras Gallery, 1.7.2011  -­‐  17.9.2011  

Joanna Latka, (1978, Poland).   The artist currently undertaking the PhD in contemporary Portuguese printmaking at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (FCT scholarship holder, 2009-2013).   Joanna Latka is a prolific artist using a variety of techniques such as printmaking, drawing and Indian ink. Her artwork may be seen in many private and state owned collections. She’s had 21 solo exhibitions and around 33 group exhibitions (in Salgadeiras Gallery in Lisbon, Lagar de Azeite in Oeiras, São Martinho de Tibães Monastery in Braga, Cartaxo Cultural Centre (CCC) and Solvay Modern Art Centre in Krakow, among others.).She was selected to take part in the International Print Network Horst-Janssen-Museum in Germany, the 9th International Biennale "Livres à Voir 9" in France and in the 5th International Exhibition of Artist Books in Hungary, among others. Joanna Latka is the co-founder of CONTRAPROVA Printmaking Studio in Lisbon. Artist collaborate with Salgadeiras Gallery (Lisbon, Portugal) since 2007. Individual Exhibitions: 2013 Gallery Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2013 Casa das Artes em Tavira, Portugal. 2012 Gallery Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2012 Galeria Municipal de Ourém, Ourém, Portugal. 2011 Portuguese Centre for Screen Printing, CCB, Lisbon, Portugal. 2011 Gallery ART-ECK, Solinger, Germany. 2011 Gallery Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2010 Gallery Fábulas, Lisbon, Portugal.   2009 Gallery Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2009 Cultural Center of Cartaxo, Cartaxo, Portugal 2008 Lagar de Azeite, Oeiras, Portugal. 2008 Museu Dwory Karwcjanow i Gladyszow, Gorlice, Poland. 2008 Cultural Center of Cartaxo, Cartaxo, Portugal. 2007 Gallery Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2007 Gallery Centrum, NCK, Krakow, Poland. 2006 Center of Modern Art Solvay, Krakow, Poland. 2006 Gallery Brama Szczecin, Poland. 2005 Gallery Szalom, Cracóvia, Polanda. 2004 Gallery  Café-Szafe, Cracóvia, Poland. 2004 Tertúlia jazz bar, Lisbon, Portugal. 2004 Termas de Monchique, Portugal

Group Exhibitions: 2013 2nd exhibition of prints of International Print Triennial Society, Cracow, Poland. 2013 Biennale Internazionale di opere di carta, Palazzo Fogazzaro, Schio (VI) Italy.  2013 Fifth International Artist Book Exhibition, Szent István Király Múzeum  (King St. Stephen Museum), Hungary, 2013 International Print Network Horst-Janssen-Museum Oldenburg, Germany. 2012 MOSTEIRO DE SÃO MARTINHO DE TIBÃES, Braga, Portugal. 2012. Contraprova. Museum of the City of Aveiro Portugal. 2012 6thBienal de Gravura, Douro, Alijó, Portugal. 2012 9th Biennale Internacionalde "Livres à Voir 9", Arras, France. 2011 Gallery  Arte Contempo, Lisboa, Portugal. 2011 Gallery  Marnoto, Aveiro, Portugal. 2011 Gallery  das Salgadeiras, Lisboa. 2010 Bookshope Babel, Lisboa. 2010 5th Bienal Portugal Printmaking Biennial.  2009 6th Évora printmaking Festival, Évora, Portugal.   2009 Museum Dwory Karwcjanow i Gladyszow, Gorlice, Poland. 2009 4th Bienal de Coruche, Portugal 2009 Museum Municipal de Faro, Faro, Portugal. 2009 Gallery  Água – Forte, Lisboa. 2008 1th Biennale Internacional de Artes Plásticas, Montijo, Portugal. 2008 Cultural Center of Cartaxo, Cartaxo, Portugal. 2008 Gallery  das Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2007 3th Biennale de Coruche, Portugal. 2007 5th Bienal de Arte Jovem, Vila Verde, Portugal 2007 Gallery  Lagar de Azeite, Oeiras, Portugal. 2006 Gallery  das Salgadeiras, Lisbon, Portugal. 2006 Jovens Criadores 2006, Montijo. 2006 Gallery  Pedro Serrenho Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal. 2006 Bedeteca, Lisbon, Portugal. 2005 Independent Exhibition of Graphic Arts Interpress, Lisbon, Portugal. 2005 Gallery  59, Lisbon, Portugal. 2005 2th Bienal de Artes Moderna, Mafra, Portugal. 2004 Gallery  Kontrast, Krakow, Poland. 2003 Gallery  Centrum, Krakow, Poland. Awards: 2009 6th Évora printmaking Festival, Évora, Portugal.  2007 Honorable Mention at 5th Biennale de Vila Verde, Portugal Artist in Residence: 34th Assilah International Cultural Moussem, Morroco 2012  

Contact: jolatka@gmail.com      latka.londyn@poczta.fm     phone: 00351 918433884 web: www.joannalatka.blogspot.pt