Daria Mielcarzewicz
A visual and graphical artist. Drawing- and digital drawing-artist, UXUI Designer and an author of texts.
She operates within graphics, illustration, animation and photography, video and words. Her collages,
photographs, “in-between” projects, small literature forms and, seldomly, performances and objects all
are borne somewhere across all these domains. Her main interests are themes of lacking, alienation,
loss or burden, that serve as a counterweight to the culture of excess, overproduction, oversaturation
and the culture of “lightness and easiness obligation”. She is in search of an artistic language to speak
of a biospherical critical point, system-wide turn in the capitalocene.
However, she loves a sense of humor in art, and in life.
She is fond of all kinds of moist, reflecting surfaces and crystalline structures. She needs to travel a few
time during the year if only for a short while. Ideally somewhere close to water and nature that whose fate
she is profoundly concerned with, now during the climate crisis.
Many of her projects are socially-engaged.
Since 2011 she has been working in a small company called “Rekord” that knows how to print on
virtually anything. Since 2012 on the other hand she has been heavily involved in her own shop called
“The Quote Shop”. The shop’s mission is to promote humanistic thought and readership.
The shops portfolio consists of some hunder and fifty graphical projects of the artist herself
(www.sklepzcytatami.pl). Since then it has become part of the cities DNA and reached even beyond:
- It has appeared in dozens of media articles (e.g. it was named as one of the ten most unusual shops in the
world, and topped the “worth to visit” list in the “Do it in Poznań” cycle by “Podróże” magazine. - It became an object of research during a literature conference on the subject of literature’s peripheries and was
- The shop’s merchandise made it to the “Best gifts for bookworkms” list made by book portal – ksiazka.net.pl
- The shop’s 2015 calendar project made it to two independent lists for the most beautiful calendars in Poland
- The shop was invited by the Polish Institute to Minsk for a multimonth exhibition in the Belarussian National Library
Done projects for:
Polish Security Printing Works, Art Stations Foundation by Grażyna Kulczyk, Museum Education Center –
Royal Łazienki Museum Warsaw, The Conrad Festival, The Polish Robert Schumann Foundation, The International
Music Festival Sopot Classic, The National Chamber of Commerce, The Nerds’ Foundation, Adam Mickiewicz
University Poznań, The Polish Theatre Warsaw, Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, The Center for Citizenship
Education Warsaw, Archeological Reserve Genius Loci, Poznań Baroque Festival, Festival of the Five Senses,
Ethno Port Festival, TEDx Poznań, Porta Posnania, Zamek Culture Center Poznań, Publishing Houses: Świat Książki,
Znak, The Polish Musical Publishing House, et al.
Education:
2022-2023 – Full Stack UXUI Designer course, Wroclaw
2012-2015 – Bachelor’s degree in Photography, Poznań University of Arts (first graduate with…)
2009-2011 – Computer Graphics, Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki Stosowanej i Zarządzania in Warsaw (postgraduate studies)
2004-2009 – Master’s degree in Theatre Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań
Scholarships:
Artistic Scholarship from the city of Poznań awarded by the Artistic Award Jury for accomplishments
in the field of photography (2009).
Awards:
- 1st prize – Golden Shield in the “NGOs” category, for the animation movie entitled “Local actions
– global change. 5 short stories.” during the VI. Socially Responsible Movies Festival – “17 Goals” (2021) - 1st prize during the international contest “Water is You” organized by the Malta Festival (2020)
- Prize in the “Centrum Warte Poznania” contest for conducting a multi-month project “Trash as art” (2019)
- Award in the “Centrum Warte Poznania” contest for a multi-month photo/graphics project “Queen Wilda
and the Ghosts of Poznań” (2015) - Honorable mention in a contest for a new logo for the “Poznań Municipal Publishing House”
- 1st prize in a photo contest Theatre Photoraphy Forum organized by “Teatr Nowy” in Poznań
(jury: Wojciech Plewiński, Thomas Aurin, Piotr Kruszczyński, Bartłomiej Sowa), 2010
Solo exhibitions:
- “Profundum. On water and melancholy”, UAP in cooperation with UAM, Poznań, January-March 2023
- “Profundum. On water and melancholy”, Off Opera festival, ABC Gallery, Poznań, August 2022
- “Spirits of a tale” / Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań, October – November 2021
- „Paper cut-outs about water” / trams and buses Poznań, October 2021
- “Spirits of a tale” / Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań, November – Spring 2021
- „Trash of our time…” / Po-Dzielnia, Poznań, September-November 2019
- „Street reclaimed” / Po-dzielnia, Poznań, September-November 2019
- “Volunteers” / Po-dzielnia, Poznań, March 2019
- Poster exhibition for the Polish Institute in Minsk, Belarus / November-February 2019
- Poster exhibition for the Culture Orangerie / Lidzbark Wamiński, September-October 2018
- “Creativity will get as all killed” / collage exhibition / EL Gallery, Elbląg, March – May 2018
- Graphical projects exhibition / Parter Gallery, Białystok, October – November 2016
- Outdoor photo and graphical projects exhibition for the “Queen of Wilda and the Spirits of Poznań”
project / Poznań, June – December 2015 - Graphical projects exhibition during the 12th POLITYKA Summer Gardens / C.Norwid Library, Elbląg,
June 2015 (permanent exhibition) - Graphical projects exhibition / MITMI, Łódź, Off Piotrkowska, October 2014
- Poster exhibition during the Poznań Baroque Festival / Poznań City Center, November – December 2013
- Book covers and illustrations exhibition / Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, January – February 2012
Collective Exhibitions:
- Handmade Prints „Ekosystem”, Galeria Atanazego, June 2023
- Handmade Prints „Level up”/CK Zamek, April 2023
- The 5th International Biennial of Photography „Space Definition 2022″/Art Exhibition Bureau, Kielce, October 2022
- Photography exhibition „Sposoby widzenia”/ Kino Forum, Białystok, September 2022
- Malta Festival Final Exhibition / Basen Olimpia, Poznań, August 2020
- “1/125” during the Labyrinth – New Art Festival / Frankfurt am Oder, October 2015
- Photography Graduates’ Exhibition / Academy of Fine Arts / Duży Pokój Foundation / Warsaw, July 2015
- “CONSTELLATIONS” – Photography Graduates’ Exhibition / University of the Arts / Poznań, May 2015
- Photography Graduates’ Exhibition / University of the Arts / Poznań, October 2014
- “On happiness” / Duży Pokój Foundation / Constitution Square, Warsaw, July-August 2014
- Photography Graduates’ Exhibition / Poznań University of the Arts / Duży Pokój Foundation, July August 2013
- Photography exhibition for the “Narew – people, nature, culture” project / “Stopka” Press
Publications:
- Collection of essays – “Wyspiański interdyscyplinarnie” / author of essay / edited by B. Burdzieja /
Mikołaj Kopernik University / Toruń 2008 / co-authored with Marianna Wartecka - “A Symphony of 444 voices” / author of illustrations / Danuta Gwizdalanka / Polish Musical Publishing House /
Cracow / 2020 - “Mistress of a lake” – reportage on Daria in Tygodnik Powszechny / Adam Robiński / isssue 42(3667) /
October 20th 2019 / https://www.tygodnikpowszechny.pl/pani-jeziora-160703Additional Information:
In 2021 she created educational climate-related graphics which were presented in trams and buses across
Poznań, and she conducted lessons on water and ecology in elementary schools together with the
Po-Dzielnia Association. The work was part of a grant received by the artist.In 2020 she won first prize in the international Malta Festival competition for her artistic-educational-
ecological project – jeziorawielkopolski.pl (Lakes of Greater Poland).In 2019 and 2015 she received grants from the city of Poznań for performing multi-month artistic projects
(Trash in Art, Queen Wilda and the Spirits of Poznań. The projects were under the patronage of Malta Festival
and her graduation projects at the same time.In 2017 she organized the photo part of a historical exhibition “Działyńscy and Zamoyscy – Greater Poland
families fight for independence”. The project was part of the Independent Poland programme.
Exhibition took place in the Kórnik Castle between December 2017 and December 2018.Since 2015 she has been running her own blog on doing things for the first time:
https://dzis-po-raz-pierwszy.tumblr.comIn 2014 she was invited as a mentor in the Lifetramp project:
https://lifetramp.com/mentors/4533-daria-mielcarzewicz
*Translation: Maksymilian Piechanowski and Daria Mielcarzewicz