"I feel very confused when I stand before a white, empty canvas. On one hand, I strive to recreate fragments of nature that were once noticed and then vanished, and on the other hand, I escape the literal approach, which would inevitably lead to an obvious transformation of reality. It is a fine line that I have been balancing on for years—a space of hesitation between abstraction and a world rooted in concrete reality. I believe that my landscape compositions, in a way, reflect my inner landscapes. Rhythms, contrasts of light, color palettes—they are all a means of interpreting my own experiences and aspirations. In my understanding, painting is a kind of magic wandering through the unknown. I do not tell specific stories, but convey what lies within a person."

Maria Suchonska

Laudatio

Painting as an Imaginative Space on one hand, Maria Niedzwiedz-Suchonska’s paintings seem to offer a view of natural landscapes from a great height; on the other hand, one feels almost on the ground, right in the midst of nature. Her compositions oscillate between distant and close perspectives. At the same time, it is not always clear whether one is actually seeing, for example, river landscapes or sandbanks. Some paintings suggest a horizon, indicating space and depth, while others appear as if viewed with a lowered head, carefully observing the terrain from above, yet very close.

This tension inspires the painter to interesting reflections, and she is fully aware of the difference between remembered impressions of nature and the images transformed on the canvas into a new reality. She also understands that colors and emotions are closely linked. Warm colors can evoke different emotions than cool colors, and bright colors can generate different feelings than muted tones. Some colors even have a hallucinogenic effect, meaning they can alter consciousness, as well as thought and feeling, if one allows oneself to engage with them. Established patterns of thought can be broken, replaced by associative chains of ideas.

For Maria Niedzwiedz-Suchonska, painting, as she herself says, is a magical journey through an unknown space. Carefully and sensitively, she balances different realities in her work. By transforming impressions of nature into a new pictorial reality, she creates experiences and effects within an imaginative space. Even when the titles of her works are Metamorphosis, Oil Flow, Undercurrent, Afternoon, or Orient, the viewer always senses that for Maria Niedzwiedz-Suchonska, it is primarily about the staging of painting itself, and the titles merely convey a fleeting mood.

Moreover, language can describe what happens while painting with colors, how perceptions shift—change, flow, movement, proximity, or distance. One can, like Maria Niedzwiedz-Suchonska, fully engage with her paintings, be captured and carried away, traverse emotional landscapes, and feel close to nature. In other words, one can experience a great deal within this painted, imaginative space of colors.

Laudation by Reinhard Fritz, 1995–2011 President, Board Member of the Neue Gruppe, BBK, and Jury Member; involvement & exhibition design for the Große Kunstausstellung at Haus der Kunst, Munich.