fumie ishii

In The Shiva Cycle, Kazimira Rachfal gives voice to the inexpressible nature of inner emotive experience. Her elegant and subtle oil paintings offer a proposition of value, one that runs counter to the instantly apparent and commodifying demands of a ‘society of the spectacle’. The modest scale of these works combined with her use of color, line, texture and form convey an austerity imbued with sensuous warmth and mysterious light. The paintings boldly demand self-reflection, stillness and patience from the viewer. Rachfal not only engages but also restores forgotten aspects of the Modernist tradition.

Still, Rachfal’s influences exceed the narrowness of the Modernist canon. She has a deep appreciation for outsider art – the sophisticated, geometric quilts of Gee Bend, a Southern Women’s collective – as well as the classical art of her homeland – Poland’s, Black Madonna – both represent creative points of reference. Rachfal’s process even mirrors the iconography of the Black Madonna, as she cradles her works in her hand while painting them with thin veils of color, layer upon layer – the paintings reference the sacred space of the cathedral through her use of the painted line as architectonic framing device.