Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson

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born 1968, Warsaw, Poland

Lives and works in London, England

 

From an early age, Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson studied art through painting lessons and friendships with Poland’s most distinguished artists and writers. In her youth, Tomaszewska-Nelson travelled solo in the Polish mountains, the Alps and Sardinia, painting and experimenting with the reflective nature of colour. In 1989, after the first Polish ‘free’ election, Tomaszewska-Nelson travelled to London and Oxford. During that trip she met her partner. For some time, they lived and worked in Boston, MA. Jazz poured into Tomaszewska-Nelson’s paintings, saturating colours, echoing rhythms. The body of work brought back to Europe, rolls of acrylic on paper, demonstrates boldness characteristic of her work. Between 1993 and 1996, Tomaszewska-Nelson studied painting at the prestigious Ruskin School of Art in Oxford. Žižek, postmodernism and reading art in the 1990s strongly influenced her understanding of conceptual art and contemporary painting. In 1996 Tomaszewska-Nelson moved to London and took her first studio in Brixton. The artist painted commissioned portraits and large flower paintings, later exhibited in London. She experimented with text, body and time-based performance art. In her first solo show in London, ‘Rabbits and Snow Angels’ in 2011, Tomaszewska-Nelson showed a series of Rorschach test-like, folded and unfolded acrylic portraits of rabbits. In 2017 she took part in ‘A Museum of Modern Nature’ exhibition in the Wellcome Collection, where she recorded and exhibited the sound of the ocean waves made with Lego bricks. In 2021 the artist held her solo exhibition ‘Pali się!’ in Punkt Odbioru Sztuki in Łódź, Poland, followed the year after by another solo show ‘In the Beginning’ held at the Centrala, Birmingham. Tomaszewska-Nelson has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Poland, Germany, and the UK. In the last couple of years, the artist has created land-art pieces, performances, and interactions with the public for Sala 752, an art space in Poland. Currently her practice involves making video art as well as painting. In June 2023 she presented her videos and was interviewed about her practice in The Museum of Contemporary Art in Warsaw. Tomaszewska-Nelson’s work is in private collections in the UK, USA, Spain, Switzerland, Croatia and Poland, and is also held in the City Museum in Gdansk, Poland.

 

Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson is the winner of Felix & Spear Exhibition Prize, held at The London Group Open 2023.

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Exhibition

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Ania Tomaszewska-Nelson: Just A Bad Dream  27 Jan - 18 Feb 2024, Felix & Spear, London (e-pamphlet)