Karolina Jabłońska’s figurative paintings foreground emotional states, portraying distressed feelings, such as isolation, disorientation, and existential threat. Rooted in the self-portrait, her work extends outward into a broader political register, responding to the climate of social unrest provoked by anti-feminist, authoritarian policies, particularly in Poland over the past decade. Drawing on the work of feminist artists such as Maria Lassnig, also featured in Global Fascisms, Jabłońska explores the spectrum of the female gaze—offering a critique of the patriarchal visual regimes of her time. Jabłońska’s large-scale self-portraits challenge the conventions of the genre through deliberate strategies of concealment. In the painting How to be invisible (2023) the protagonist lies curled up on the ground, her body entirely covered by an oversized garment. As in other works by the artist, the body remains central—insistently present, yet withheld from view. Ultimately, withdrawal becomes a form of protest, a gesture of refusal.

Although she draws on the tradition of Romantic painting, her interest lies not in the ideal, or the power and immensity of the sublime, but rather in the sombre and desolate landscapes as allegorical scenes in which psychological themes emerge. In Woods (2025), the artist uses a palette of blues to transform a familiar Polish forest into a haunting scene, where the latent dark, violent past can be perceived. Here, the female figure merges with the landscape, camouflaged with branches and mist. Jabłońska’s self-portraits reframe personal experience as a site of political tension, capturing the solitude, disorientation, vulnerability, but also the resilience experienced by women across generations.

Woods commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), co-produced by Karolina Jabłońska, Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul, and HKW, 2025

WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION: How to be invisible (2023), oil on canvas, 190 × 240 cm. Courtesy of the artist and private collection, Berlin, Dorothee Gorovoy; Woods (2025), oil on canvas, 200 × 250 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul