METHODOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS
ARTIST STATEMENT
Searching for a form for the invisible.
I am interested in the human being — what they experience, what shapes them, and what remains within them after encounters with others. Emotions, relationships, memory, closeness, fear, and dependencies do not have their own shape, yet they can influence our entire lives.
Painting is for me a way of giving form to these.
I create with the thought of the person who will stand before the painting and bring their own story, memory, and sensitivity. I do not want to tell you what to see or what you should feel. I leave space for you to find your own meaning and your own story.
I seek a language for what exists within a person and between people. Sometimes I find it in human form, sometimes in the structures of nature, and sometimes in a world so small that it remains beyond our sight.
Nature is for me not only a subject of the painting but also a source of metaphors. Organic networks can speak of interdependence and community. Trees can adopt the gestures of human figures. Light can bring forth from darkness what was previously hidden.
In my latest paintings, I increasingly direct my attention to the personality of the human being. I think of it as something built through encounters. We carry within us fragments of people we have loved, those who have stayed with us over the years, and those who appeared only for a moment. Words, gestures, experiences, fears, and ways of seeing the world remain within us.
I am interested in the tension between what we receive from others and what is truly ours. Between closeness and dependency. Between influence and freedom. Between what builds us and what begins to limit us.
I am not looking for a single answer and do not want to impose one.
I want the painting to stop you, even if just for a moment. To allow you to see something that was previously invisible — in the world, in another person, or perhaps in yourself.
About Me - Barbara Puto
Biography, Creative Journey, and Passion
BIO
Barbara Puto is a contemporary Polish painter based in Warsaw. Her artistic journey unfolds through consistently developed, original painting cycles, in which she addresses themes related to humanity, its inner world, and the relationships that occur between the individual, another person, and nature.
An important area of her interest is the processes of personality formation and the traces left by experiences and the presence of other people. Relationships manifest in her work in various dimensions — as closeness and co-presence, but also dependence, tension, influence, or limitation. In her latest works, the artist increasingly directs her attention to questions about the boundary between what the individual absorbs from the environment and what they recognize as their own.
Nature remains a significant source of inspiration. Puto seeks analogies in its structures to the ways in which humans and communities function. Organic forms serve not only to represent the natural world — they become carriers of meaning and a starting point for stories about relationships, interdependence, communication, and survival.
The artist works in oil, acrylics, and watercolor. She also creates minimalist drawings on black paper, where instead of building form with shadow, she extracts the figure from the dark background using light. The choice of medium and method of depiction is subordinated to the character of the developed project, moving between figuration and organic and abstract forms.
Her practice is based on working within cycles that allow her to explore selected issues through successive paintings and different formal solutions. Regardless of the medium, there is a recurring interest in what is difficult to see directly, yet realistically influences human experience.
A deeply meaningful source of inspiration also comes from private, intimate plein air trips with my daughter. It is in the quiet of nature and moments of family reflection that many concepts for my works are born, as I strive to capture the fleeting light and the authenticity of the moment