Essences - without pretension
Barbara Puto's painting exhibition
The exhibition "Essences – Without Pretending" by Barbara Puto presents a series of watercolors depicting humanity in its most authentic dimension – without masks and roles. The works created between 2025 and 2026 reveal emotions, tensions, and moments of inner breakthroughs, as well as those that bring joy and meaning to life..
The exhibition at the Dramatic Theatre in Płock is a meeting of painting art with the space of the theatre – a place where humanity also confronts the truth about itself.
An exhibition that moved
Intuition - the fading ability of humans. The non-verbal reception of what reaches us from the outside and our inner selves. Traces of experience and feelings that can guide us better than logic suggests.
The roles we play in our lives - work, play, daily life, vacations ...
02.
The essence of Power, as well as knowledge, the strength of the heart and emotions.
Mannequins showcase our superficiality - masks that create images of ourselves.
Essences are the core of our emotions, feelings - illustrated states of our inner being.
Details
Vernissage April 18, 2026
before the premiere of the play:
"Butterflies Are Free"
at 3:00 PM or 6:00 PM
Exhibition location:
📍 Jerzy Szaniawski Dramatic Theatre in Płock
Nowy Rynek 11
🗓 Duration:
April 18 – May 21, 2026
possibility to view the exhibition before each performance
Meetings with the artist
For a group of 4 people or more - I am ready to arrange a personal guided tour.
Please contact me.
About the exhibition
About the exhibition "Beings - No Pretending"
My "Beings" are us — people. However, devoid of what divides us.
They have no gender, religion, or skin color. They have no orientation or political views.
In my works, all of this disappears.
Because a person is something more.
It's the feelings we carry deep within ourselves. It's the emotions we sometimes cannot name. It's the experiences that shape us.
It's also the warmth we can give to another person. And empathy — the only space where we truly meet.
In "Beings," it's not about how we look. It's about what we feel.
The exhibition has a universal character – it tells the story of humanity regardless of time, place, and context. It can serve as a natural introduction to a meeting with theater – whether it's a fairy tale, comedy, grotesque, or drama.
This is the first public presentation of images from the series Beings.
Exhibition Structure
The exhibition "Essences – without pretending" is planned as a transition – from the external to the internal.
The viewer is guided linearly, step by step, through the stages of human experience.
At the beginning, theatrical mannequins appear – dressed in historical costumes, representing the roles we take on in life. This is a world of form, image, and what we show to others.
Only later do images from the "Essences" series emerge. Gradually, they reveal what is hidden – emotions, tensions, and inner states that are not visible from the outside.
As one moves through the exhibition, the contrast between the mannequins and the images becomes increasingly clear. What is visible and orderly begins to diverge from what is real and felt.
The central moment of the exhibition is the encounter with an image depicting a fracture – the moment when one can no longer maintain form and we stop pretending.
The final part of the exhibition does not provide simple answers. It leaves the viewer with an experience – the awareness that what is most important is not always visible.