For Paris Internationale 2026, Gunia Nowik Gallery is pleased to show a duo-presentation by Polish photographer Teresa Gierzyńska (b. 1947) and Ukrainian painter Sana Shahmuradova Tanska (b. 1996). Bringing together two artists from different generations and cultural contexts, the presentation traces a feminist inquiry into embodiment, identity, and the shifting boundaries between personal and collective experience.
A pioneering figure in Polish feminist art, Gierzyńska is represented through a selection from her seminal series About Her (1976–1995), in which photography becomes both a performative record and an experimental medium for articulating psychological and emotional states. Shahmuradova Tanska presents new paintings and painterly objects where mythology, memory, and lived experience converge in fluid, dreamlike compositions, reflecting on care, resilience, and the body as a vessel of memory.
Together, the artists create an intergenerational dialogue in which vulnerability becomes a form of agency and identity emerges as something continually negotiated rather than fixed. Through photography and painting, their works offer distinct yet resonant perspectives on the enduring complexities of embodied experience.
Born in 1947 in Rypin, Poland. In 1964–65 she went for an educational art trip to Canada. In 1965–1971, she studied at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in prof. Tadeusz Łodziana’s sculpture studio and prof. Oskar Hansen’s Solids and Planes design studio. Since the late 1960s, photograph and its duplication techniques such as thermocopy or photocopy have become the main tool for the artist’s exploration of the representation of women and their role marked by society. Her most known cycle About Her proposes an investigation or introspection within the female identity, the mystical version of feminism, where the photographs are accompanied by adjectives – meaningful titles given to the pictures: Dangerous, Independent, Unapproachable, Mature, Cold, Worried, Thirty Years Old, Useless, Left-handed, Velvety, Caresses, Full of Hope. She lives and works in Warsaw.
Teresa Gierzyńska, Tormented (About Her series), 1980, verso signed, artist’s stamp on the back, gelatin silver print on matte paper, aniline-dyed, mounted on cardboard, pencil, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, version I, 39.5 x 29.5 cm, 15 1/2 x 11 5/8 in
Teresa Gierzyńska, Dissatisfied (About Her series), 1984, artist’s stamp on the back, verso signed, gelatin silver print on glossy paper, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, 49.5 x 35 cm, 19 1/2 x 13 3/4 in
Teresa Gierzyńska, Uneasy (About Her series), 1980, verso signed, artist’s stamp on the back, gelatin silver print on matte paper, mounted on cardboard, pencil, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, version II, 19.5 x 29.5 cm, 7 5/8 x 11 5/8 in
Teresa Gierzyńska, Awaiting V (About Her series), 1990, verso signed, artist’s stamp on the back, gelatin silver print on matte paper, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, 15 x 20 cm, 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
Teresa Gierzyńska, Expecting IV (About Her series), 1990, verso signed, artist’s stamp on the back, gelatin silver print on matte paper, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, 15 x 20 cm, 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
Teresa Gierzyńska, Awaiting II (About Her series), 1990, verso signed, gelatin silver print on matte paper, wooden frame, UV glass, unique, 15 x 20 cm, 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
Solo exhibitions:
2025
In Her Own Image: Fragments of a Feminine Self (with Aneta Grzeszykowska), Belfast Exposed, Belfast, United Kingdom
The Children of Sławoszyno, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2024
Here and Now, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2021
Women Live for Love, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
Pause, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2019
FOAF 2019: Teresa Gierzyńska & Isabelle Fein, Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw, Poland
2018
Left-handed, Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw, Poland
2017
Moods, Vintage Photo Festival, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2014
Touch, Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw, Poland
2009
About Her. Photographs from 1967–2008, Arton Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
2008
The Essence of Things, Czarna Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2004
Four Pictures, Mala Galeria ZPAF, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
1993
T.G., Galeria ZPAF, Kraków, Poland
1991
Shadows and covered the body …, Mała Galeria ZPAF, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
1990
About Her. Black, White and Green, Galeria FF, Łódź, Poland
SHE IT ME, Galeria Ściana Wschodnia, Warsaw, Poland
1981
She it me, Ściana Wschodnia Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
1976
Graphics (Memories), Dom Artysty Plastyka, Warsaw, Poland
Selected group exhibitions:
2025
Photos on Fridges, Harkawik, New York, New York, USA
Ways of Seeing, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland
Sophie Thun. Secret Performance, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland
How the Museum Works, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland
Edward Dwurnik: Portrait from Nature, Edward Dwurnik Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
2024
The Shield, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
We Want the Whole Life. Feminisms in Polish Art, State Gallery of Art, Sopot, Poland
Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s, Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada
Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s, Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, USA
2023
Family Affair, The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA
Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s–1980s, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
MY BODY IS YOUR BODY, Braunsfelder, Cologne, Germany
Basel Social Club, Basel, Switzerland
2022
Gloss, Matt, Color, The Museum of Warsaw, Poland
Kinds of Love, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Cartographies of Sublime Feelings, BWA Zielona Góra, Poland
2021
My mother, my daughter, BWA Krosno, Poland
Self-Portrait with Blues. Hasior and New Art, Władysław Hasior Gallery, (Tatra Museum), Zakopane, Poland
Tender Attention. Urszula Czartoryska and Photography, Fotofestiwal 2021, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland
Instant Archives. Instant and Instax in Poland, National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland
With Pleasure, Galeria Szara, Katowice; Krupa Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
2020
&I<3U2, Studio Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2019
Metamorphosis, Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw, Poland
Photography collection, Gallery 10, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
2018
From the collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2014
By the River that Isn’t, BWA Sokół‚ Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy Sącz, Poland
Architecture of the Shadow. Chalets and bazaars, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
2012
Implicit in Sex. From the collection of Joanna and Krzysztof Madelski, Photofestival 2012, Museum of the City of Łódź, Poland
2009
SIEGesIKONen transFORM, Humboldt Umspannwerk, Berlin, Germany
2007
Time Saved 1977-2006, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
2006
Icons of Victory, Łódź Art Center, Poland
1992
Europa unden Rammer, Aarhus Festuge, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark
1990
Looking East, Aarhus Festuge, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark
Collection of Contemporary Technological Art, Vicerrectorado de Universitaria, Cuenca, Spain
1989
Looks / Impressions from the collection of Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland
1988
Collezione, Autori del Fondo Fotografico della Circoscrizione, Centro Civico di San Miniato, Siena, Italy
II Bienal Internacional de Electrografia y Copy Art, Valencia, Spain
Polish Perceptions / 10 Contemporary Photographers 1977-88, Collins Gallery, Glasgow, UK
L’Immagine delle Donne, Rassegna Fotografica Europea, Buonconvento, Siena, Italy
1986
IX British International Print Biennale, Bradford, UK
1979
Polsk Kunst, Kobenhavns Radhus, Denmark
1978
International Trennial of Drawing, Wrocław, Poland
1970
Young Polish Sculpture in Plein-Air, Legnica, Poland
1969
Drawing-Interior (with Edward Dwurnik and Przemyslaw Kwiek), Galeria Klubu Medyk, Warsaw, Poland
Prizes:
Maria Anto & Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Art Prize, edition 2019, Miejsce Sztuki Foundation, Warsaw
Selected collections:
Centre Pompidou in Paris; The Art Institute of Chicago; Kunsthaus Zürich; Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and ERSTE Foundation; Museo International de Electrografia in Cuenca; Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; Museum of Warsaw; Museum in Gliwice; Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; National Museum in Gdańsk; Studio Gallery, Warsaw; Casa São Roque – Centro de Arte in Porto
Painter, born 1996 in Odesa, Ukraine. She spent most of her childhood in the village of Podillia, Ukraine. In 2010, she graduated from a school of ballet, and in 2013, she and her family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. There, in 2020, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from York University. In 2020, Sana Shahmuradova decided to move to Kyiv, where she continues to work in the fields of painting and graphics. She uses various materials in her work, such as wood, burlap, canvas, and oil paints. Sana is also exploring her origins and using trauma as a tool to communicate and connect with her ancestors. Her latest works examine transgenerational traumas and the role of dreams in them, often highlighting the violence and atrocities committed against civilians and nature by the aggressor state, Russia. Her paintings were shown at the DHAKA Art Summit in Bangladesh (2023), Mystetsky Arsenal in Kyiv (2023), EVA International Biennial in Limerick, Ireland (2023), and at the Biennale of Sydney (2024).
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, The Rapture (What is in the shade), 2025, oil on canvas, 160 × 143 cm, 63 × 56 1/4 in
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, Sacredscapes, 2025, oil on canvas, 160 × 143 cm, 63 × 56 1/4 in
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, The Rapture (Intermediate State), 2025, oil on canvas, 160 × 143 cm, 63 × 56 1/4 in
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, Perfect Timing, 2026, oil on canvas, 80 x 64 cm, 31 1/2 x 25 1/4 in
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, On their land, 2023, oil on found wooden box, 25 x 23 x 6 cm, 9 7/8 x 9 x 2 3/8 in
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, On their land, 2023, oil on found wooden box, 45 x 15 x 20 cm, 17 3/4 x 5 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
Solo exhibitions:
2026
Who Promised It Was Going to Be Alright? We Never Did. Indeed (History Knows No “If”), Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2025
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska. The Rapture, MOCAK – Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków, Poland
2024
I Dreamt… Did I Dream…?, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2023
Catching circles – then they match again, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2021
The Waxing Crescent Myth, Muzeon Experimental Center, Museum of Modern Art of Odesa, Ukraine
Group exhibitions:
2026
Glimmering Connections. Ukrainian Painting at the Turn of the 1990s and Today, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
Within the Circle. Works from the Eliza Łoś-Strychowska Collection, BWA Wałbrzych Old Mine, Wałbrzych, Poland
The Field Has Grown Over with Wormwood, Promprylad Art Center, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
2025
The Woman Question 1550–2025, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
Bells and Cannons. Contemporary Art in the Face of Militarisation, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
Voices from Ukraine, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland
Survival Kit 16: House of See-More, Creative City Grīziņdārzs, Riga, Latvia
Global Fascisms, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Cockaigne, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, Poland
A Planet on A Pin, Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
Art After 2000. A Glossary, Ukrainian House, Kyiv, Ukraine
Looking into the Gaps II, Artsvit Gallery and Modern Culture Center, Dnipro, Ukraine
Shadow of Water, Kyiv Office of the Crimean Platform, Kyiv, Ukraine
2024
The Shield, Gunia Nowik Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Unsettled Subjects, STATION, Sydney, Australia
Land of Fire, Kunsthalle Bega, Timișoara, Romania
Is death not the end?, Museum of Odesa Modern Art, Ukraine
CRASH CLUB x U22, Al. Ujazdowskie 22, Warsaw, Poland
Secondary Archive: Women Artists in War, Galeria Labirynt, Lublin, Poland
Trust the Stream, Coulisse Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Australia
The Sharp Smell of Flowers, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław, Poland
2023
Further than Light or Language, Voloshyn Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
Four Slag Heaps, i am you are – Ukrainian Creators Fair, Los Angeles, California, USA
40th EVA International – Ireland’s Biennale of Contemporary Art, Limerick, Ireland
Forms of Presence, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
DHAKA Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh
A za derevom derevo (Tree after a Tree), Asortymentna Kimnata, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
2022
STRUM, Odesa Fine Arts Museum, Odesa, Ukraine
My House Is Your House, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Chernoziem, Galeria Dim, Warszawa, Poland
Set Phosphenes, Studio for Artistic Research, Düsseldorf, Germany
CONTRAPUNCT, Künstlerhaus Vereinigung, Vienna, Austria
SENSING PLACES / PLACING SENSES, ODP Galerie, Leipzig, Germany
As in the Cinema, Artsvit Gallery, Dnipro, Ukraine
If it is no war today, it doesn’t mean there is no war, Goethe Institut, Kraków, Poland
APOKALIPSYS, Diogenes gallery, Lviv, Ukraine
In Ukraine, Gallery at Dobin Mews, New York, USA
2019
Long Winter Toronto/The Arctic Night, Harbourfront Centre’s Festival Of Cool, Toronto, Canada
2018
ART SALON, Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada
L’EVASION, Kensington Market, Toronto, Canada
Selected collections:
Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh; TAAD Foundation, Vilnius, Lithuania; and private collections in Poland and abroad
The Art Newspaper: The Big Review | The Woman Question 1550-2025 by Alyce Mahon
Art Basel: 8 emerging artists to seek out at Art Basel’s 2025 Swiss edition. They pose poignant questions about the body, intimacy, and the limits of their medium by Tara Dalbow
The Guardian: Amid air raids and electricity shortages, a Ukrainian artist paints the Russian invasion by Dee Jefferson
Ocula: 8 Artists to See at Biennale of Sydney 2024 by Phoebe Bradford
Cultured: This Kyiv-Based Artist Has Navigated Shellings, Blackouts, and Freezing Temperatures. She Still Paints Every Day. by Sofia Vinnichenko
Artforum: EVA International, Various Venues by Declan Long
The Guardian: Vegetable grenades with entrail roots: Ukrainian art cuts through at Irish biennale Limerick’s EVA International has staged exhibitions in bars, bacon shops and even a handball alley. Will this year’s militant spirit help it get the attention it deserves? by Rory Carroll
e-flux: This Show is Not About the War: Ukrainian Artists in Poland and the Burden of Representation by Jakub Gawkowski
Vogue Poland: Painter Sana Shahmuradova Tanska continues to create in Kyiv despite the ongoing war by Basia Czyzewska