Anna Pakosz

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

Rooted in a post-communist Eastern European context, my practice is a form of reclamation. I’m interested in how materials carry emotion and resist fixed meaning. My work begins with an urge to touch, move, and transform. I work with large, unstretched fabrics that circulate between domestic, outdoor, and studio spaces. Traditional techniques are disrupted and reimagined through porous surfaces, bleach, and rust. An ever-expanding relationship with tools and techniques helps me maintain a “beginner’s mind,” where ego yields to practicality and expression. My gestures are kinetic: direct, urgent responses to what the surface demands. My whole body is involved. Charged with different rhythms, each painting records multiple encounters, physical discharges of energy layered over time. This flux between slow and fast, alchemical and painterly, accidental and intentional, is what keeps the practice alive, a cycle of control and surrender. By shifting perspectives often, I notice my assumptions about the work, about art, about the world. Questioning what holds value opens space for greater inclusion and new possibilities. In this way, the paintings keep teaching me how to listen.

Artwork