Paulina Semkowicz: Frisson

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Frieze as composition, as movement—traverse, from point A to B, from left to right, or the other way around, as rhythm, as history, as narrative. In climbing, a horizontal movement at a certain height; in architecture, an ornamental band, but somewhere up there, above our heads, out of reach, an ornament along the ceiling. Horizon. Horizontal band. It carries something cinematic, something connected to movement: climbing in effort, the in-between situation, the attempt to cross over into another place. We don’t know what awaits us there. One can get the shivers.

Paulina Semkowicz (1980, Kraków) is a visual artist working primarily with painting. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and from the Faculdade de Belas Artes at the University of Porto, Portugal. Recent solo presentations include TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art in Szczecin (2026), Spiritvessel in Catalonia (2025), VIN VIN Gallery in Vienna (2025), and EVN Sammlung in Maria Enzersdorf (2025). She lives and works in Vienna.

Using monumental painting, she creates transitional, narrative—though abstract—spaces where absence or presence shapes the viewer’s experience. Drawing on years of theatrical painting, she turns backgrounds into active stages for contingency, exploring themes that remain elusive yet deeply resonant.