Lot 71 - Ella Kowalska - Yellow

Photographic print on paper
2024
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Women in Art

About
Ella Kowalska is a photographer who practices street, documentary, and art photography.
In her photography work she is particularly sensitive to the colours, materials, and sounds that give the world its texture, and she seeks to achieve the right balance between realism and fantasy. She is driven by the desire to give an account of our times and searches for a form of 'augmented reality' able to tell our modernity. Her Polish upbringing was marked by a culture that calls for absurdity and irrationality and sublimes the beauty and profoundness in the unreasonable and extravagant. It’s in this distorted reality, which could sometimes seem more real than the reality itself, and in its astonishing connections that she feels at home.

Education
2022
Training in Photography, Gobelins Imagery School, Paris, France

2010-2011
Master of Art history specialised in museology and cultural heritage, University Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

2009-2010
Master of law specialised in cultural heritage, University Paris-Sud XI, Sceaux, France

2009-2010
Master of art history specialised in contemporary art, University Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

2008-2009
Master of law specialised in public law, University Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

Exhibitions
2025
La Chapelle, Halle Pajol, Paris, France

2024
100 Years, 100 Women, MVAC du 7ème, Paris, France
Elles par elles, Les Camélias, Nice, France
Women in Art Exposition, The Roundhouse, London, United Kingdom
Women street photographers: a global street photography exhibition, Objectifs, Singapore

2023
Culture(s): between fusion(s) and contrast(s), Espace Aleph, Montréal, Canada

Awards
2023
1st price, Culture(s): between fusion(s) and contrast(s), Arab World Festival of Montreal

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
Call Me is a reflection photography piece employing the technique of capturing layered visuals. A young woman, seen through the interplay of reflections, appears on the phone, her pregnant belly symbolizing renewal. The image bridges spaces and generations, representing the duality of migration in France and everywhere else—loss and separation, yet hope and continuity through new life.

M is for Mother is a reflection photography piece employing the technique of capturing layered visuals. The M metro sign, positioned within the reflection of a Madonna poster, evokes a powerful metaphor—a motherly figure watching over the city with a nurturing gaze. A tender narrative unfolds within the urban landscape.

Time Travelers is a reflection photography piece utilizing the panning technique. By blurring the background and foreground, enhanced through dynamic reflections, two figures appear as if journeying through space and time. The interplay of motion and light evokes a surreal narrative of movement beyond reality.

Yellow is a photography piece utilizing the panning technique. Rainy days transform the cityscape, with reflections in water blurring reality. As natural light fades, artificial hues emerge, casting a dreamlike glow. The figure with the vibrant umbrella seems to step straight out of a fairytale, merging movement and magic in one fleeting moment.