Born: 1950 Warsaw, Poland
Biography
Artist, designer and gallery director, Joanna Ciechanowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1950. After a convent education, in 1976 she completed an MA in Graphic Design and Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, studying under graphic and poster artist Professor Leszek Hołdanowicz. The same year, after her degree, she joined friends who were driving through Europe; according to Ciechanowska, it was then ‘much easier to move about’ pre-Solidarity (the anti-authoritarian social movement in Poland in the 1980s). She managed to sell some of her work in West Germany, and eventually made it to Putney in London, England, where she stayed with an aunt ‘ostensibly for a month of culture-vulturing’ (Smith, 1987). She enrolled in English classes, and through friends met a civil engineer, who she refers to as ‘the wonderful Englishman with a beard’ (Ben Uri, Oral History Interview, 2017). He had a post in Iran, and after their marriage Ciechanowska and her husband moved there for a brief time. Ciechanowska worked for a leading advertising agency in Tehran but was soon uprooted by the Islamic Revolution in 1978, after which the couple ‘moved to the calmer environs of Egypt’, followed by a Zulu hut in Lesotho. Advised by her mother not to return to Poland, they moved back to London in 1982 (Smith, 1987; Ben Uri, Oral History Interview, 2017).
When Ciechanowska arrived in London, her portfolio consisted mainly of large, sombre oils ‘leaning towards the abstract’ (Taylor, 1999). She initially found it difficult to find work as an illustrator or designer, reflecting that this was probably down to the ‘Polish art school approach to turning out the good all-round community artist’ (Smith, 1987). Freelancing as an illustrator throughout the 1980s, Ciechanowska created brochure cover illustrations for London Transport Advertising, Citröen BX, and CBS Records; for the latter designing the cover of Bonnie Tyler’s single Straight from the Heart (1983). She also found work as a designer for Lock Petterson, taking on the advertising campaign for the application system of IBM’s first PC, in which she chose the motif of a window (before Microsoft Windows). The poster ‘Share Your View’ and Tyler’s single sleeve were chosen for the European Illustration D&AD Awards which toured London, Paris, New York, and Stockholm from 1985–86. While part of London’s dynamic commercial art scene, she experimented with soft pastels, offering a freedom and flexibility she had not encountered before. ‘This change led to a total metamorphosis in style. Her work acquired movement and a light impressionistic touch. Strong and vibrant colours became her trademark’ (Taylor, 1999). In 1987 she was considered among ‘The Young British Generation’ of notable designers in novum, and in 1989 ‘six of the country’s best’ illustrators in Computer Images International. This accompanied her parallel practice as a painter, exhibiting in the Whitechapel Open at Whitechapel Gallery, London in 1987.
In the early 1990s her husband’s work took Ciechanowska to Hong Kong, then part of the British Empire. Having had a son in London, the family witnessed the historic events leading to the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China in 1997. The couple had a daughter who sadly died aged two-and-a-half, after which their marriage eventually ended (Ben Uri, Oral History Interview, 2017). The many pastels produced in Hong Kong and after were ‘born of the contemplative stillness that followed years of personal turmoil’ (Taylor, 1999) and several were reproduced as cards in aid of various charities, including the Matilda Child Development Centre and the Bereaved Parents Support Group of Hong Kong.
Ciechanowska returned to Poland in 1996, moving to an old mining town west of Warsaw. After two years she moved back to London, and finding less opportunity in commercial design and illustration, she focused primarily on fine art. She became a member of the Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (APA), and a regular contributor to the Polish language newspaper Nowy Czas, where her digital portraits, ‘Artful Faces’, were published monthly. In 2008 she took on the voluntary position as director for POSK Gallery at the Polish Social and Cultural Association in Hammersmith, London. In 2012 her limited-edition graphic print, E-Migration. Will I make it?, sold out at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, with buyers including collector, Robert Hiscox and Professor Tim Spector. She has since exhibited in the Quality of Everyday Life at Summerhall Gallery, Edinburgh (2013), and many times at POSK Gallery, including the APA Autumn Exhibition Masks in 2014 and Lockdowns in 2021. Cienchanowska also shows with the Free painters and Sculptors (FPS, etablished in 1952 and originally associated with the ICA). Her digital portrait of Boris Johnson was included in the survey exhibition, Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain held at Ben Uri Gallery in 2017. Joanna Ciechanowska lives and works in Sheen, south west London.
Related books
- Justyna Gorzkowicz, Towards Rediscovery: Lockdowns - Joanna Ciechanowska (London: PUNO Press, 2020)
- Rachel Dickson ed., From Adler to Zulawski: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain (London:Ben Uri Research Unit, 2020)
- Elvira Olbrich, Constant Travellers: Joanna Ciechanowska (Warsaw: Galeria Sztuki Bohema, 2019)
- JC Erhardt, 'Dreams in Indigo Blue: Tribute to David Bomberg', in Anna Maria Mickiewicz ed., In Honour of the Artist (London-Orlando: Dreammee Little City, 2018), pp. 27-28
- JC Erhardt, 'Free Fall' in Anna Maria Mickiewicz ed., Contemporary Writers of Poland (London-Ontario: Dreammee Little City, 2017), pp. 23-25
- J. J. Johnson, 'The Broken Rainbow of Joanna Ciechanowska', Nowy Czas, No. 228, March 2017, pp. 22-23
- 'Joanna Ciechanowska', in Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain, preface by J. W. Sienkiewicz (London: APA, 2014), pp. 28-29
- 'Joanna Ciechanowska', in Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain, preface by J. W. Sienkiewicz (London: APA, 2014), pp. 28-29
- E. Sobolewska, 'Biennale z perspektywą (Biennale with a perspective), Dziennik Polski, 4 September 2011, p. 6
- Magdalena Taylor, Joanna Ciechanowska-Webb: Masks and Memories (Warsaw: Galeria Test, 1999)
- Mandie Rickaby, 'Illustrators Impressed', Computer Images International, January 1989, pp. 13-15
- Wendy Smith, 'A Personal Choice', Graphics World, No. 69, November/December 1987, pp. 33-35
- Wendy Smith, 'A Personal Choice', Graphics World, No. 69, November/December 1987, pp. 33-35
Related organisations
- Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (member)
- Free Painters and Sculptors (exhibitor)
- Lock Petterson (designer)
- POSK Gallery, London (exhibitor)
Related web links
- APA website
- Artist's "Lockdowns" youtube video
- Artist's talk about the exhibition "Quality of Everyday Life", Summerhall Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013
- Artist's website
- Ben Uri, Oral History Interview: Joanna Ciechanowska, 2017
- Free Painters and Sculptors website
- From Adler to Zulawski: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain, Rachel Dickson ed., exh. cat
- TVP Polonia, video from 10:07 to 15:00
Selected exhibitions
- Lockdowns: Against the Odds - Joanna Ciechanowska, POSK Gallery, London (2021)
- FPS at the Muse, Muse Gallery, London (2018)
- Art Out of the Bloodlands: A Century of Polish Artists in Britain, Ben Uri Gallery (2017)
- Broken Rainbow, Willesden Gallery, London (2017)
- Migrant's Dream, POSK Gallery, London (2016)
- Magic of Light, Rickshaw House Gallery, London (2016)
- Unfixed, Free Painters and Scultpors, Espacio Gallery, London (2015)
- Masks, Autumn Exhibition, APA, POSK Gallery (2014)
- Spring Exhibition, APA, POSK Gallery (2014)
- National Open Art Award, Pallant House Gallery and Minerva Theatre, Chichester and Somerset House Gallery, London (2013-15)
- Quality of Everyday Life, Summerhall Gallery, Edinburgh (2013)
- Autumn and Spring exhibition, APA, POSK Gallery, London (2013)
- Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2012)
- Little Experiment, POSK Gallery, London (2012)
- 2012 Londoners, POSK Gallery, London (2012)
- Polish Posters, ARTeria, Nowy Czas, London (2012)
- Flux, Flow, Flight: Art in Motion, Orleans House Gallery, London (2011-12)
- Format VI Collective, UNIT 24, London (2011)
- Black & White, POSK Gallery, London (2011)
- Four Corners of the World, Rickshaw House Gallery, London (2010)
- Chopin, APA, POSK Gallery, (2010)
- Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1987)
- Time, B&H Gold Awards, Hamiltons Gallery, London (1987)
- European Illustration D&AD Awards, London, Paris, New York & Stockholm (1985 & 1986)
