Barbara Puto

Lives and works in Warszawa, Poland

Artist statement

MICROCOSM What allows a living organism without a brain or centralized control to survive, make decisions, and construct complex, adaptive networks? Microcosm is a long-term painting project born from my fascination with slime moulds, particularly Physarum polycephalum. Without a brain or nervous system, this unicellular organism responds to its environment, navigates towards efficient routes between food sources, constructs networks, retains information, and continuously reorganizes itself as conditions change. I am fascinated by this paradox: complex, adaptive behaviour emerging without hierarchy or central command. Rather than depicting the appearance of Physarum, I investigate the mechanisms through which it functions: connection, flow, absorption, expansion, communication, adaptation, memory, and continuous reorganization. Each painting isolates or expands one of these processes, searching for its painterly equivalent. Across the six works presented here, networks form and dissolve, structures absorb and connect, energy accumulates and is released, and apparent chaos begins to reveal an underlying order. The movement between watercolor and large-scale acrylic painting is a deliberate part of this investigation. Watercolor allows structures to emerge through fluidity, diffusion, transparency, and chance. In acrylic works reaching 110 × 170 cm, scale and materiality transform these mechanisms into a physical experience. Dense layers, texture, and gesture create tension...

Artwork