Meet the Artist

Justyna

Janik

Cross-Discipline

“"No one has yet determined what the body can do..." (Benedict De Spinoza)In an age of environmental collapse that threatens to end human existence, the questions I raise with my work include; what does it mean to be a body in the world, what are the forces acting on it, and what can a body hope to do? An immersive installation that combines gesticulating anthropomorphic sculptural objects and video of natural and artificial events, suggest the embeddedness of the body in the world, underscoring the enmeshed becoming of body and world through perpetual dynamic motion. In combining the two mediums with dramatic music in humorous and absurd ways, the lameness of the human vis-a-vis universal and earthly forces is exposed. Revealing the vanity of a relationality marked by dominance, control and competition. At the same time, the repetitive mechanical gestures of the anthropomorphic figures reinforce the propensity of human social, historical, cultural and material assemblages to resist change. But if the body is a guide, then I hope my work also suggests that any part can be a genesis for being otherwise. In creating moments of strange relationality between the body-objects and video through rhythms, gestures, oscillations, I allude to the body’s abundant possibilities to make kin with other species, entities, beings, objects. The body’s desire to relate and expand the possibilities for life. ”

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Justyna Janik (b. Poland) is a cross-disciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. In her work, Justyna investigates the body, particularly what its physicality can reveal about environmental, social, political and historical contexts, relationality to living and non-living entities and life as material existence. Her exploration of the corporeality of the body is reflected in her material exploration in painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and video work. Through experimentation in the physical attributes and properties of diverse mediums, her work probes the boundaries between life and matter.
OCAD U - Faculty of Art
Drawing and Painting
Major Completed, 2021
University of Toronto
History & Political Science
Major Completed, 2003

Drawing Painting Moulding and Casting Metal Fabrication Plastic Fabrication Video Editing

2020, Art in the Time of Coronavirus
Drawing & Painting Online Exhibit, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2020, Festival of the Body
The Great Hall, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2019, The Mindful Project: Routes|Routes
Old Town Hall Gallery, Newmarket, ON
2019, Personnes
OUR Gallery, Toronto, ON
2019, Abstract
Gallery Ring, Online
2018, Awanda Inspired
Ada Slaigh Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2017, At First Sight
Ada Slaigh Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, ON
2017, ReVersion, Figure & Portrait Art Exhibition
Super Wonder Gallery, Toronto, ON
2016, MUSE, Representational Art Exhibition
Super Wonder Gallery, Toronto, ON
2020, Frances Lea Ziegler Memorial Scholarship
OCAD University
2019, Project 31 Drawing & Painting Scholarship
OCAD University
2018, Barbara Sauerbrei Memorial Scholarship
OCAD University
2017, TSA Scholarship
OCAD University
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