Ewa Beyer-Formela „Forest”

For over 50 years, Ewa Beyer-Formela has been dealing with the physicality of wood, granite and marble, attempting to transform the materials into classical open-air sculptural objects. Holder of a degree in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk received at Prof. Stanisław Horno-Popławski’s studio in 1960, she remains faithful to the concept of retaining the truth of the material in creative work. In her works, she uses raw material in a way that preserves its unique qualities. Her sculptures use means of expressions sparingly. If she uses figuration, it is merely an accompaniment to the abstract form that usually is her starting point determined by the shape, weight and tangibility of the available material. In this way, she expresses her huge respect for nature and natural forms. The artist works outdoors much more often than in a studio. While working, she finds contact with nature obvious and direct, and it is reflected in the forms that she employs in her artistic expression. At the exhibition in the Gdańsk City Gallery, the artist will present a series of marble sculptures called “The Woods”. The core of the presentation is a dozen of vertical sculptural compositions that are Ewa’s interpretation of the subject matter. The works were created when the artist stayed outdoors nearby the source of the precious material – the surroundings of Lądek Zdrój. The sculptures that she has been making there for the past few years, will now be exhibited in Gdańsk for the first time.

The exhibition of Ewa Beyer-Formela’s sculptures is yet another presentation organised in the “Logos –Bios” series, which features sculptors analysing and confronting the motif of the convergence of culture and nature. The sphere of chaos represented by biology and the sphere of logos identified with order, human intervention or even symbolic oppression.