{"id":4956,"date":"2020-12-31T11:05:30","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T10:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/?p=4956"},"modified":"2020-12-31T11:05:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T10:05:31","slug":"large-format-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whystory.pl\/en\/large-format-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Large Format Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interview with Maggie PIU (Ma\u0142gorzata Bieniek), about her unusual paintings depicting beautiful and colorful women. Her works are displayed in her own art gallery in Cracow, which was awarded the title of The Best & More. Maggie Piu is a Charismatic Woman who combines the role of an artist with the duties of a wife, a mother of three children and who also supports the needy by donating her works to charity auctions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Best & More title was awarded to the Maggie PIU Gallery, so I\u00a0wanted to ask about the gallery first. How long has it existed, in what conditions was it created and why here – that is, at the Square of the Ghetto Heroes?<\/strong>
Thank you very much for the recognition and granting such a\u00a0noble award. I\u00a0have to say that my paintings look much better live, in large formats, than on the Internet, which I\u00a0enjoy using anyway. Direct contact between a\u00a0work and its viewer as well as artist \u2013 viewer contact has its unique taste. I\u00a0have been considering opening an author\u2019s gallery for a\u00a0very long time. Recently I\u00a0came across my first blog post from 2010, in which I\u00a0wrote that although I\u00a0had always dreamt of having my own gallery, I\u00a0started with a\u00a0blog and that\u2019s how it went\u2026 In the meantime, I\u00a0attempted to start a\u00a0gallery in cooperation with other brands, but now I\u00a0do have my own author\u2019s gallery. We run it together with my husband. It is a\u00a0place where everyone interested in my work can always freely come or arrive, see, touch, compare, talk, and simply commune in a\u00a0friendly and relaxed way. The location, in turn, is the result of several factors: I\u00a0like Cracow\u2019s Old Podg\u00f3rze district and its climate very much, besides the Old Town and Kazimierz it is currently the third district of Cracow most often visited by tourists, a\u00a0place where life goes a\u00a0little bit slower, where large cultural projects are developed and which is modernizing while maintaining its local climate. It is also important that you can easily reach the gallery by car and park your car nearby, get to it by streetcar or take a\u00a0walk from Kazimierz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eMaggie Piu Gallery\u201d, Krak\u00f3w, pl. Bohater\u00f3w Getta<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What works can art lovers find here?<\/strong>
As I\u00a0mentioned, it is an author\u2019s gallery, where you can always see several dozen of my works from different series and in different techniques. The selection of the presented paintings is also constantly changing, because I\u00a0have painted several hundred of them and I\u00a0keep on doing so (laughter). But in the gallery we also present posters, iconography, products inspired by my paintings, which are more useful, decorative, serving as gifts, all in line with my favourite idea that art should not remain closed in itself, but rather come out and reach people.
For 2020 I\u00a0have planned a\u00a0series of temporary exhibitions under the general title \u201eMaster and Margaret\u201d, in which I\u00a0planned to present to the public the works of a\u00a0selected artist presenting a\u00a0clear, personal style and juxtapose them with my work. These plans, however, have to wait for the realization of a\u00a0more social friendly time.
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So far I\u00a0would like to invite everyone interested in my work, in general Maggie Piu\u2019s tyle in various forms. <\/strong>
Your path to painting led you along different routes. You were an architect first. At what point did you focus on creating paintings?
I\u00a0drew as a\u00a0little girl, actually since I\u00a0can remember and it has always been my passion, I\u00a0realized it quite early on. I\u00a0graduated in architecture at the Cracow University of Technology, and all the time drawing more than painting, that\u2019s the technique I\u00a0preferred at that time. I\u00a0am an architect not only by education, but also by practice, but this demanding and absorbing profession did not allow me to create art, so I\u00a0decided to give up the profession of interior designer, and to take care of what I\u00a0love, namely painting. It was a\u00a0risky choice in life, but very important for me and my inner harmony, also very conscious.
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    Do you think that your genes have also influenced this?<\/strong>
    I\u2019m not a\u00a0specialist in genetic conditions, but colloquially speaking, the blood of the artists flows in my veins: my father is a\u00a0sculptor; although a\u00a0musician herself, my mother is also from a\u00a0family active and successful in painting. The atmosphere in the family home in Rytro was really artistic, the times were difficult, but since childhood art has surrounded me. However, I\u00a0really appreciate the fact that neither my parents nor my late brother-painter influenced in any way my creative activities, they discreetly supported but did not interfere, and I\u00a0thank them very much for that.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do you paint only women? How would you describe your painting style? What techniques, paints, canvases, other materials do you use?<\/strong>
    Yes, women have always been, are and will probably be a\u00a0constant theme of my drawing first and now painting. Depending on the period in my life, first princesses, then female warriors, now their various incarnations, the set is considerable. Sometimes, however, I\u00a0ask myself if women are the subject or if women are just the element that fits into what you are asking about, that is style. It is my personal style, I\u00a0am faithful to it, I\u00a0feel like its author, it flows from my heart and mind, I\u00a0can call it \u201emagiepiuism\u201d. I\u00a0don\u2019t like comparisons to Art Nouveau, although there are some parallels, but I\u00a0especially appreciate the works of old masters who created in different times. It is the times that determine the art\u2026
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How did it happen that you started to inspire interior and clothing designers? You often appear not only at exhibitions but also at fashion shows and conferences.<\/strong>
    As we have already mentioned, I\u00a0am an architect myself and I\u00a0worked for a\u00a0long time in this industry, precisely in interiors. There is a\u00a0growing awareness among architects and clients that a\u00a0designer must also plan paintings for an interior so that everything is coherent. And my paintings, especially the large ones, work very well for this purpose. As for fashion, when I\u00a0graduated from high school I\u00a0was thinking about design, especially the shoes of my design were very original. However, the city with the only school teaching in that field at that time was Lodz,so I\u00a0gave up this idea as my beloved Krakow won. But I\u00a0feel strongly attached to fashion, my paintings often refer to it and I\u00a0have to admit that I\u00a0feel like a\u00a0pioneer of exhibitions at fashion fairs. I\u00a0have been doing it as the only one at many fairs for years, including the pioneering \u201eFashion Week Poland\u201d, which is no longer there, in \u0141\u00f3d\u017a.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Where else can one find your paintings? Who orders them most often? How long does it take to wait for them to be created?<\/strong>
    Currently the main place where you can see my paintings is Krakow and our gallery. I\u00a0organize temporary exhibitions or participate in exhibitions and other ventures virtually all over Poland, I\u00a0do it with great pleasure and have already visited many cities and towns. Even this year in September I\u00a0was invited with exhibitions simultaneously to three very different places: The Magistrate of the Krakow City Hall, for the opening of the extremely interesting Tichauer Art Gallery in Tychy and the climatic Cafe-Artistic in Solec-Zdroj, before the pandemic I\u00a0visited London and Katowice. I\u00a0believe that the sense of art is to share it, so I\u00a0am happy to participate in various projects related to its presentation.
    Answering the second and third part of the question, I\u00a0would say that my paintings are probably mainly ordered and purchased by those people who find some beauty in them and simply like them. My style is very decorative, so the paintings almost always become part of the space where the buyers live every day or at least from time to time and inevitably make this space more beautiful. My paintings must probably harmonize with their soul and sensitivity, perhaps that is why they choose them, the world of my imagination suits them, for which I\u00a0am very thankful and grateful.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Maggie Piu\u2019s vernissage during The best & More conference. From left: Pawe\u0142 Janas, Beata Seku\u0142a i Natalia Cieka\u0144ska<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    What professional and life achievements are you most proud of?<\/strong>
    I\u00a0am most proud of charity auctions, every year I\u00a0add amounts that go to good causes, the rest of my life is sinusoidal ups and downs.
    In life like any mother I\u00a0am proud of our family, it is not easy to reconcile professional and family life, and certainly the life of an artist with that of a\u00a0housewife.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How does your work look like in COVID times?<\/strong>
    My painting work hasn\u2019t really changed, I\u00a0still spend most of my time in the studio. So, unlike for most people, my regular day looks like it did before. What has changed is the inability to organize exhibitions, meetings with people in a\u00a0larger group. For 2020 I\u00a0planned more activities related to the presentation and promotion of my painting abroad, in Poland these activities were also reduced to a\u00a0minimum. The gallery, in turn, is visited by far fewer people than usual during COVID. Tourists and guests from abroad, and even from Poland, who have willingly and numerously visited us before, have disappeared from Cracow.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The gallery and you, as Maggie Piu, have been awarded the The Best & More title also for your social activities. During the WHY Story conference you donated your work to support Fabianek\u2019s surgery, but there were many more such activities\u2026<\/strong>
    I\u00a0am very proud to participate in charitable activities. This gives additional meaning to my work. Anyway, I\u00a0participate only in charity auctions, so anyone who prefers this way of obtaining paintings and plans to have one of mine is invited to take part in auctions with the charity purpose specifically. I\u2019m pleased to contribute my donation, I\u2019m also happy that there are generous and good people who spend money to help those in need by buying art.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How do you recharge your batteries in your free time and what plans are there for you?<\/strong>
    There is a\u00a0problem with charging the battery, in fact I\u00a0don\u2019t have time to do it in some special ritualistic way every day. I\u00a0combine work with passion, both of these parts of my life are filled with painting and this is a\u00a0big advantage, but I\u00a0also share time with home and family duties. I\u00a0am a\u00a0mother of three school-age children, everyday life absorbs a\u00a0lot of time and energy. I\u00a0have plans to travel to Japan and if such a\u00a0few weeks\u2019 trip could come to fruition, I\u00a0would be very happy and I\u00a0suppose that then the batteries would be 100% charged. n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thank you very much for inviting me and I\u00a0would like to greet all the readers.<\/strong> \u2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Beata Seku\u0142a<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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