Exhibition: Hidden Icon by Joanna Pinkiewicz

Hidden Icon is a body of work inspired by the profound visual and theological legacy of Polish painter Jerzy Nowosielski. Developed as a parallel exploration during Joanna’s Honours program, this project delves into Nowosielski’s iconographic language, drawing from his unique synthesis of Eastern Orthodox tradition and modernist aesthetics.

While Joanna’s primary Honours work followed a different conceptual and visual trajectory, the themes uncovered in this side project compelled her to create a series of works for public exhibition. The Polish Club Ashfield offers a fitting cultural context for this visual inquiry.

Nowosielski, trained as an icon painter before World War II, experienced a crisis of faith in its aftermath, leading him to embrace modernist painting. His oeuvre—both sacred and secular—is imbued with theological depth. Through his depictions of the female form and abstract compositions, he meditates on the tension between body and spirit, sacred and profane, often revealing a mystical inner space that invites contemplation and transcendence.

In Hidden Icon, Joanna interprets these ideas through a visual language that echoes Nowosielski’s bold use of contrasting colour and iconographic imagery. The works explore the interplay of concealment and revelation, inviting viewers to contemplate on the presence of the sacred in our lives. 

• Curated by Renata Brak of Renata Art Design 

• On view 3 December 2025 – 1 February 2026 (Tuesday through to Sunday 10:00am – late)

Joanna Pinkiewicz is a Polish-born artist who migrated to Tasmania in 1993 at the age of 17. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1996 and returned in 2025 to undertake an Honours project at the University of Tasmania. Her practice explores the relationship between spirituality and materiality. Engaging in iterative processes and sensitive material exploration, she works in watercolour, oil paint and installation. Based in her Lulworth studio (Northern Tasmania), Joanna draws inspiration from the Pipers River Estuary and her Hindu spiritual practice.

Renata Art Design is passionate about creating an arts community that is vibrant, impactful, and significant. Over the past two decades, Renata has worked for a variety of commercial galleries, artist run initiatives, auction houses, cultural festivals, and major arts institutions, most notably the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. She has curated, facilitated, and marketed over 100 exhibitions nationally and internationally. Renata has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tasmania, and a Masters in Art Curatorship from the University of Sydney.

Art work purchase and further details: https://renataartdesign.com/joanna-pinkiewicz/

Image recognition: @ness_vanderburgh