Between 1993 and 1999 studied at the Fine Arts and Culture Department of the WSP in Zielona Góra (now University of Zielona Gora), diploma in Drawing and Intermedia. PhD in Visual Arts from Multimedia Communication Department of Poznan Academy of Fine Arts (2008). Between 2000 and 2005 a curator of Amfilada Gallery. In 2004 coordinated the ‘Znaki Czasu’ Programme in the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship. Awarded bronze Medal for Merit to Culture ‘Gloria Artis’ (2005). Since 2004 President of Zachęta Contemporary Art Association in Szczecin. Founder and curator of ‘Przeciąg’ Young Art Festival. A grant from the Marshal of Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship and Mendelson Foundation in Berlin. Artist-in-residence in Mecklenburg Art Center at Pluschow (2000) and Schafhof - Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern in Freising (2009).
Numerous group exhibitions: Too Much but Enough, Sybaris - IV Contemporary Art. Biennial National Museum, Szczecin (2001); Red Fits Everybody, Freiessen, Artgenda, Hamburg, Germany (2002); Passion in Common, Faunomania, Petersburg, Russia (2003); Anne, Marie, Madeleine – Photographie Polonaise Contemporaine, France, Apolonia Association, Strasbourg, France (2004); Spaces of Intimacy, National Museum, Szczecin (2005); Her Portrait but Non-Faithful, Manchattan Gallery, Lodz (2006); Lilit, Program Gallery, Warsaw (2006);
St. Bernadette, Program Gallery, Warsaw (2006); Profile I: Polish Art Today, Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, USA (2007); Random in Radom
– Jerzy Busza Festival, Contemporary Art Museum, Radom (2007); Four Spaces of Art, Konduktorownia, Zacheta Regional Association
of Contemporary Art, Czestochowa.(2008); Schlock, Amfilada Gallery, Szczecin (2009); The Most True Love Stories. Allegories of Love in Polish Contemporary Art – Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz (2009).
Most important individual exhibitions: In Five Tastes, Amfilada Gallery, Szczecin (2000); We are Sweet, Polish Institute Gallery, Minsk,
Bielarus (2002); I Want to be Beautiful When I Grow Up, Akhmatova Gallery, Petersburg, Russia (2003); Specialties from the East,
Alte Feuerwache Projektraum, Berlin (2003, with Agnieszka Rek); I belong to Nobody, Nowy Wiek Gallery, Lubuska Land Museum, Zielona
Gora (2004); Too Beautiful to be True, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ustka (2006, with Agnieszka Rek); In a Way, Sektor I Gallery, Upper
Silesian Centre of Culture, Katowice (2007); Yes or No. Herstory, Manhattan Gallery, Lodz (2007); In Art Dreams Come True but not Everybody’s, National Museum, Szczecin (2009).
The artist in her works plays with her own presence, tension is created by juxtaposing various realities: a true but in a way ‘unnatural’ one
– from a photo atelier and an untrue one, more ‘true’ than the true one – created by pasting her own image into other people’s photographs.
Using her own image she creates autobiographical fiction. Her art may be interpreted as a photographic diary of a young woman living
in contemporary Poland. It reflects tensions between the pressure of new patterns of behaviour and traditional social expectations of women.
The artist shows various situations in which such a woman may find herself in. She is particularly interested in turning points which,
as we believe, should constitute romantic feelings. On the other hand they are connected with official approval of emotions, their ritualization. Ceremonies mark subsequent stages of our biography, like adolescence or marriage, which equals maturity. They are rites of passage where private, emotional, and public official spheres coexist.
At the same time we are dealing with tradition and the pressure of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ as well as an influence of widespread personality patterns on the choices an individual makes.
Excerpts from Magda Ujma’s ‘Rites of Passage’
published in Artluk (March 2008).
