About Me

Biography

Maja Borowicz is a painter, graphic artist, and visual creator. She works primarily in oil, creating paintings rooted in surrealism, on the border of magical realism and emotional realism. Her works combine imagination, talent, and traditional painterly craft.

Beyond technical mastery, viewers recognize a deep sense of mysticism and emotion in her work. The audience may feel as if their soul is taken on a journey through time and space, living the stories of the characters shown on her canvases.

She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She is also a laureate of many international art competitions, including Art Revolution Taipei 2014 (Taiwan) and Spectrum Miami 2018 (USA).

Artist Statement

My paintings tell the story of how an important chapter in human history shaped the thoughts and experiences of one person.

I was born in a country heavily devastated during World War II, in a city that had been erased from the map decades earlier and was never meant to rise again. I belong to a generation that inherited trauma and painful experiences, often unconsciously passed down by previous generations.

As a child, I did not know a single family untouched by personal wartime tragedy. My grandparents experienced violence, death, and repeated loss - of loved ones and of family property built over generations. Their world was never coherent, stable, or predictable. They passed this burden on in the hope that nothing so horrific would ever happen again.

Yet the next generations had to live in communist oppression under Soviet control, in a system based on terror and surveillance. It severely limited personal growth, individuality, freedom of speech, and the possibility of leaving the country. Life behind the Iron Curtain was closed and saturated with fear. This reality left a lasting mark on people's minds and worldviews.

Helplessness, disagreement, and frustration burdened my parents' generation for years. Then I was born. I inherited both ancestral trauma and, from fate, a chronic illness and artistic talent.

My illness affected my body from early childhood. The harsh social reality made proper diagnosis nearly impossible. I suffered, relying on limited medical knowledge and recommended treatments that not only failed to help, but often became another source of pain and loss of hope.

My refuge was imagination. The tool that made the world bearable was a pencil and a sheet of paper. But the road to my present painting language was long and difficult. It took almost 30 years.

It led through struggle with the system, through Poland's regained freedom in 1989, and through understanding, self-awareness, and acceptance of individuality. It was a rough path of personal survival.

Imagination offered me images that held everything I was, everything I experienced, and everything I witnessed. All of this is alive and visible in my paintings. My characters are often fragmented, cracked, broken, shattered, or partly mechanical - an allegory of my own personal struggles.

They grow from memory of earlier generations and echo deep emotional experiences. The world I depict is never coherent, stable, or predictable. It is a world of chaos, where characters struggle with changing reality and sometimes touch the edge of hopelessness.

The paintings I create tell a social and human story. My life is only one example. There are many places in the world, under different regimes and in active wars, where only love and hope help people endure.

I contain these complex feelings, experiences, and thoughts within my paintings. Because the message is difficult and demanding, I express it through realistic forms in oil painting.

My work is a tribute to our collective experience and sacrifices. Thanks to them, we have a chance to become stronger, more sensitive, and better human beings.

Selected Reviews

"The world of Maja Borowicz is, on one hand, deeply rooted in reality, and on the other, open to events that transcend ordinary perception. In this way, her spatial images are filled with existential symbolism of magical realism, embracing the most intimate and profound experiences of human existence.

Maja Borowicz's artistic craft includes an excellent sense of line and drawing, rich color dynamics, and a nuanced handling of light and spatial depth. Using these means, the artist builds a body of work that uncompromisingly addresses difficult intimate, social, and cosmic themes, yet without falling into a pessimistic vision of catastrophism."

• Prof. Jeremi T. Krolikowski

Selected Exhibitions

• 02.2025 - Art Capital group exhibition, Paris
• 03.2024 - Expo "Art Show" group exhibition, Warsaw
• 05.2023 - Group exhibition, CK Dworek Bialopradnicki, Krakow, Poland
• 05.2023 - Solo exhibition, CK, Koszalin, Poland
• 11.2022 - Solo exhibition "Emotional Realism", Monopolis Gallery, Lodz, Poland
• 02.2022 - Group exhibition "Duality of Perception", Baltic Sea Cultural Centre, Gdansk, Poland
• 10.2021 - Quadriennale Betesda, group exhibition, Mt 5,14 | Museum of John Paul II and Primate Wyszynski, Warsaw, Poland
• 09.2021 - Magical Dream group exhibition, Bator Gallery, Szczyrk, Poland
• 08.2021 - Solo exhibition, Zamek Gallery, Szczecinek, Poland
• 10.2020 - Solo exhibition, VITKAC, Warsaw, Poland
• 05.2020 - Group exhibition "Perception of the Circle", Szczecinek, Poland
• 02.2020 - Group exhibition "Perception of the Circle", Gdansk, Poland
• 03.2019 - Group exhibition, Visionary Art, Moscow, Russia
• 12.2018 - Group exhibition at Spectrum Miami International Expo, USA
• 05-07.2018 - Group exhibition, J. Malczewski Museum, Radom, Poland
• 12.2017 - Solo exhibition, Studio Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
• 12.2017 - Group exhibition, European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium
• 07.2017 - Group exhibition "Dreams 3", Gallery 25N, USA
• 07.2017 - Group exhibition "Metamorphosis", Kolobrzeg, Poland
• 05.2017 - Group exhibition "Metamorphosis", Radom, Poland
• 03.2017 - Group exhibition "Metamorphosis", Wloclawek, Poland
• 02.2017 - Group exhibition "Metamorphosis", Gdansk, Poland
• 11.2016 - Paintings in the interior design of "Scout" hotel and bowling venue, Czestochowa, Poland
• 11.2016 - "Kuznia" featured on the cover of Anthology of Polish Fantasy, Solaris
• 09.2016 - Solo exhibition, Twierdza Fantasy Festival, Gizycko, Poland
• 08.2016 - Group exhibition, POLCON Euro-conference and Fantasy Festival, Wroclaw, Poland
• 06.2016 - Solo exhibition, International Fantasy Festival in Nidzica, Poland
• 04.2016 - Group exhibition at Art New York International Expo, USA
• 05.2015 - Group exhibition at Art Revolution Taipei International Expo, Taiwan
• 12.2014 - "Beyond the Horizon of Events..." group exhibition of Polish surrealists, Quantum Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
• 01.2013 - Solo exhibition, Stylo Gallery, Oslo, Norway
• 10.2013 - Solo exhibition at the Main Planetarium Building in Olsztyn during the Scenography and Special Effects Review, Poland
• 09.2012 - Solo exhibition at the Main Planetarium Building in Olsztyn during the Scenography and Special Effects Review, Poland
• 10.2012 - Solo exhibition at Kultura Cinema in Warsaw during the Digital World of Film conference, Poland
• 12.2008 - Solo exhibition at the Municipal Cultural Center in Olsztyn, Poland

Awards

• 12.2018 - "The Best of the Show" title, Spectrum Miami, USA
• 04.2018 - 1st place in the international Artavita competition, USA
• 12.2017 - Palm Art Award 2017 - Certificate of Excellence, Germany
• 09.2017 - "Ostatnie iskry nadziei" - 1st place, Futurism category, American Art Award, Hollywood, USA
• 09.2017 - "Policzony czas" - 1st place, Surrealism category, American Art Award, Hollywood, USA
• 09.2017 - "Czulosc przeznaczenia" - 2nd place, Male category, American Art Award, Hollywood, USA
• 07.2017 - "Policzony czas" - 3rd place in the international "Femininity" art competition, Toronto, Canada
• 10.2016 - "Wspomnienie jutra" - 1st place, Futurism category, American Art Award, Hollywood, USA
• 06.2016 - "Cicha minuta istnienia" - 2nd place in the international "Momma Juried Art Competition"
• 05.2016 - "Kuznia" - 1st place in the international "All Scapes" art competition, Toronto, Canada
• 10.2015 - Honorable mention, international "Mind, Spirit & Emotion II" competition, USA
• 09.2015 - 1st place, Futurism category, American Art Award, Hollywood, USA
• 04.2014 - 1st place and group exhibition at the international Art Revolution Taipei competition, Taiwan

Additional Activity

• 09.2016 - Lecture for high school students on "Message in the Work of a Contemporary Artist" during the exhibition at the "Twierdza" Fantasy Festival in Gizycko
• 08.2016 - Interview for the Canadian International Gallery Of The Arts and Exquisite Arts Magazine (online edition)
• 06.2016 - Digital painting workshops and management of the art competition "Poland and the World in 100 Years" with Wacom during the 23rd Fantasy Festival in Nidzica
• 06.2015 - Lecture for students of the University of Information Technology and Management (WIT) in Warsaw on "A Young Artist on the Contemporary Art Market in Poland and Worldwide"
• 15.11.2014 - Interview in Polish Radio 24: http://www.polskieradio.pl/130/2789/Artykul/1288912,Mlody-polski-talent
• 04.2014 - Lecture and digital painting workshops during the nationwide illustration competition based on classical and contemporary Polish literature at E.M. Andriolli Art High School in Minsk Mazowiecki
• 09.2013 - Lecture "Painterly Effects in Film" during the Scenography and Special Effects Review, BlueBox, Olsztyn
• 10.2012 - Lecture "Matte painting as part of film narration" during the Digital World of Film conference organized by the Polish Film Institute, Warsaw
• 11.2011 - Video Meeting in Krakow - lecture and workshops organized by Kiwi Production and Adobe on special effects and virtual set post-production
• 04.2011 - ArtBuzz workshops in Krakow - lecture and workshops "Graphics in Film". ArtBuzz is an open training series on graphics, new technologies, and the Internet:
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSDQT_Vx6fQ