Iwona Siwek-Front

Painting, drawing and narrative art exploring urban memory, femininity and everyday mythology.

Background

She describes her practice as "visual journalism," using overheard stories, texts on walls, and urban gestures as ready-mades. Her vivid, contrast-driven works offer bold commentaries on urban life and social conditions.

Born in 1967 to an artist family, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, completing a PhD in 2009 on the semiosphere and the circulation of signs in public space.

Artist Statement

My work is rooted in urban life and the constant circulation of words, signs, and gestures. I collect short, sharp phrases overheard on the streets, in trams and bars, alongside fragments of media and slogans written on the city’s walls.

Text and language often become integral visual elements in my compositions. My practice forms a portrait of people and a close, attentive observation of contemporary society in constant transformation.

Urban Research & Doctoral Foundation

Siwek-Front's practice is rooted in research. Her doctoral project "Semiosfera mojego Miasta. Notatki" (2009) documented Kraków's urban tissue through photographs, conversations and field notes from trams, cafés and public spaces.

These materials became the foundation for paintings, drawings and animated films interpreting the city with humour and anthropological insight. Her animated works feature Kraków actors and form a dialogue between visual art, sound and urban storytelling.

Institutional Exhibitions & Projects

Baba Lukrowana

A Cultural Alter Ego

The character of Baba Lukrowana was born in 2013 in the Vis-à-Vis café in Kraków. The first images were spontaneously made with a pen on small pieces of paper at the bar.

Baba is a synthetic figure shaped by traits of independent women I have been observing and recording for nearly twenty years, across series such as Liberated Women, Botox will not get you into paradise and Kraków Courtesans.