Artist: Wanda Michalak

Hahnemühle Baryta print, size 60x90cm, edition of 5 (+ 2 A.P.).

Also available in other sizes.

Wanda Michalak (1952) was born in Poland. Her early childhood was spent in the fumes of photo chemicals which probably influenced the choice of her future profession. But not straight away. It took years of growing up, finishing various schools, having a baby, moving out of Poland, arriving in Amsterdam, moving out to the Cook Islands then New Zealand to find out that photography was the thing.

She followed a course of photography in Auckland’s Carrington Polytechnic. Having finished that, ended up back in Amsterdam. Taught photography there and in Warsaw. Gave work-shops as far as Brazil. And travelled a lot. In the year 2000 she had this mad idea of opening her own gallery, Gallery WM is still running. And Wanda is still travelling.

Wanda Michalak photographs portraits, landscapes, nudes. Important is the emphasis she places on mutual cohesion, the “connection”, a word that is frequently used in the titles of her exhibitions. Her landscapes are portraits of nature. In the nudes, the body becomes landscape. The “connection” is very explicit in her self-portraits. Here she integrates the portrait, the nude, the landscape and herself in one image.

Wanda Michalak’s work shows us her deep connection with nature in an intriguing way. By placing herself as a classic nude model in an ever-changing but always beautiful landscape, she refers to paradise and the innocence of man. She adds herself to nature and becomes one with it. The result is images that exude vitality and optimism, while at the same time being serene and tranquil.

She has been working on this project since 1992. Every journey – and only then – she adds images so that the series is also a report of her journey through the world and through life. It is a fascinating series in which interesting developments are visible, such as in the works in which she does not fully reveal her form, but which therefore show her even more in all her vulnerability, as if the nakedness is less revealing than the concealment.

Selected exhibitions:

2023
“Living with Birds” Klub Nauczyciela, Galeria 137, Lodz,  Poland

2022
“Metamorphopsia” (duo exhibition with Debb Mills), Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2021
“Traces” (group exhibition with Frederieke Jochems and Paul Schäublin) , Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2020
“Twenty Twenty” 20th Anniversary Gallery WM (group exhibition with Pete Purnell, Frederieke Jochems, Pim Vlug, Robyn Stacey, Jaap Bijsterbosch), Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2019
” Lush” Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2017
“Wabi Sabi / Window with a View” (group exhibition with Kasia Fortuna) Gallery WM, Amsterdam               
“Through Deserts & Dusty Roads” Galeria Obserwacja, Warsaw

2016
” Through Deserts & Dusty Roads” Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2015
“Distortions & Reflections” (group exhibition with Anna Witkowska) Gallery WM, Amsterdam               
“Welkam long Papua Niugini (duo exhibition with Marinka Masseus) Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2014
“Beware of Stonefish” Gallery WM, Amsterdam               
“Marking Time” (group exhibition with Kathryn MacGovern) Graydon Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

2013
“Living with Birds” Graydon Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
“Living with Birds” Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2011
“World Watching” Queensland Centre for Photography (QCP), Brisbane, Australia
“Arbophilia” (duo exhibition with Cecylia Malik) Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2010
“Ten years” Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“Ten” RudolfV Gallery, Amsterdam
“Ten” Gallery Foksal Ateliers, Warsaw, Poland

2008
“Somewhere, Nowhere” Gallery WM, Amsterdam.
“Horizons” & “Bonsoir Madame La Lune” 2B+R, Warsaw, Poland

2007
“Time Remembered – Mala Gallery 1977 – 2006” Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland.
“Bonsoir Madame La Lune” Museum Cinematography, Lodz, Poland
“Polska” group exhibition, Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2006/2007
“World Watching” RudolfV Gallery, Amsterdam

2006
“World Watching” Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“World Watching” Galeria Luksfera, Warsaw
“Bonsoir Madame La Lune” Six Images Gallery, Amsterdam
“Dialogues Dialogues” Gallery WM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2005
Jaarboek -Gkf – (group)exhibition, Kolderveen, The Netherlands
“(5 years later the) Men (are still) About”, Gallery WM 5 Years Jubilee, Amsterdam
“Dialogues, dialogues” – Gallery Arka, Vilnius, Lithuania

2004
“World Watching” Polish Culturel Institut, Sofia, Bulgaria
“Ego Ik Zelf” Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
“If you go into the woods today…”, Pauza, Krakow, Poland
“Van bossen en bomen”, Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2003
“If you go to the woods today…” (group exhibition) Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“Dialogues, dialogues” (solo exhibition) Mala Galeria, ZPAF, Warsaw

2002
“American Bookshop Calender” (group exhibition), ABC Tree House Gallery, Amsterdam
“World Watching” (duo exhibition), Gallery Objectief, Enschede,The Netherlands
Open Ateliers de Jordaan, Amsterdam
“Polish Biennale (group exhibition), Brielle, The Netherlands
“Images of Desire” (group exibition) Winston Hotel, Amsterdam
“Tweede Fotograven avond” (group exhibition) ABC Treehouse Gallery, Amsterdam
“25 Years Jubileum” (group exhibition) Mala Galeria ZPAF, Warsaw, Poland
“World Watching”, Galerie Donker, Gorinchem, The Netherlands
“Duister” (group exhibition GKF members), Galerie Melkweg, Amsterdam

2001
“Australia on the Line”, Franjostudio – Raam Galerie, Amsterdam
“Self and Friends” (group exhibition), ACF, Amsterdam
“20×20 Inches of Holland” (group exhibition) Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“World Watching”, Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“De Fotograven Avond” (group exhibition), ABC Tree House Gallery, Amsterdam
“Selfish” (group exhibition), Gallery WM, Amsterdam

2000
“Men About”, Gallery WM, Amsterdam
“Bilgoraj. Polen in de Bijlmer” (group exhibition), Bijlmer Galerie, Amsterdam
1956-1996 Photoproject – Europa Dag Express (9.05.2000)
“I Love to be Landscape”, Scheltema Trappengalerie, Amsterdam

1999
“World Watching II”, Instituto Portugues de Fotografia, Lisbon, Portugal
“About Men”, Mala Gallery ZPAF/Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
“Venus Nova” (group exhibition), Gallery ArkA, Breda, The Netherlands
“World Watching II”, Salvador de Bahia, Brasil
“Ontmoetingen” (group exhibition), Grote Kerk, Breda, The Netherlands

1997
“Venus Nova”, Studio “M” Bozeny Marki, Warsaw, Poland
“World Watching”, Galeria FF, Lodz, Poland
“Venus Nova & Slavic Connections”, Schwarzenbergplatz 4, Vienna, Austria

1996
“Project 17x17x17”, (group exhibition), ACF, Amsterdam

1995
“Slavic Connections ” (ACF) Amsterdam Centrum voor Fotografie
“Portraits of Slavic Women”(duo exhibition), Hoorn, Netherlands

1994
“New New Horizons”, Lubljana, Slovenia
“Natural Connections”, Gallery De Moor, Amsterdam

1993
“Double Exhibition”, Galeria Panorama – Patio, Warsaw, Poland
“Travel Photography – Ghana”, De Moor, Amsterdam

1992
“The Moor Inside Out” (photo project), De Moor, Amsterdam
“Selected Works”, Gallery Spectrum, Amsterdam

1991
“The Four Elements” (group exhibition), Gallery De Moor, Amsterdam

1990
“Portraits”, Auckland

Publications

“TEN” published by WM, Amsterdam – 2010

“World Watching” published by WM, Amsterdam – 2007

“Bonsoir Madame la lune!” – brochure Polish/English edition – 1996

“World Watching” Published by LTM, Warsaw (Poland) – 1997

Respublica Nowa: illustrations for nr 72 (sept 94), nr 92 (may 96), nr 100/101 (jan/feb 97), nr 105 (june 97), nr 120 (sept. 98), nr 153 (june 01), nr 161 (feb 02), nr 168 (sept 02)

Motor Puls Magazine: 1996 – Ghana (illustrations)