Aldona MICKIEWICZ, "State of Balance".

35x35, oil on canvas, 2002

(Born 1959 in Oswiecim)

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow from 1979 to 1984 in the studio of Tadeusz Brzozowski, then with Stanislaw Rodziński and Zbylut Grzywacz (graduated with honors in 1984). At the same time, from 1980-1984, she studied philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow. She paints and draws, and occasionally engages in monumental painting (a series of altar paintings at the Benedictine monastery in Monte San Savino, Italy; together with Tadeusz Boruta, 1992-1993).

In the 1980s, the artist actively participated in the independent culture movement in opposition to the official authorities, taking part in numerous exhibitions held under the auspices of the Church. In 1986 she was on an art scholarship in Rome. Her paintings are in numerous museum and private collections, including: the National Museum in Gdansk, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Radom, the Mazovian Center for Contemporary Art "Elektrownia" in Radom, the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art "House of the Washerwoman" in Kielce, the Museum of the Archdiocese of Warsaw, the Augustinum Stiftung (Munich) and the Cistercian Abbey in Hauterive (Switzerland).

She has had more than 30 solo exhibitions in Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy; participated in more than 100 congregational exhibitions. She is the winner of the Kazimierz Ostrowski Prize (2008) and the 1st Prize of the Znak Publishing House competition for memoirs about Rev. J. Tischner (2013).