Biography
Pawlak’s work is connected by her unique capacity to maintain a strong personal aesthetic through cohesive color palates and commitment to telling the truest version of her stories to the best of her capacity. She believes that great work tells the individual narrative with an honest venerability that allows the viewer to step into a shared, narrative they can then claim as their collective truth.
Pawlak’s landscape paintings mark her relationship to the expansive geographic landscape of Canada. She employs emotive color to extend the sky and land, creating expansive spaces for contemplation. Emotive, color field work emit a calm energy and while they do not name a particular time or place, they offer an opportunity to reflect.
Another series from Pawlak investigates the female form. Subtly expressing the complexity of vulnerability and the capacity of the body to quietly bear the responsibility of immeasurable weight. Her figurative work considers memory and time as they are carried in the physiology of our bodies. She sees the landscape and the body as place-holders for memory.
In her latest series, Imagined Vessels, Pawlak explores another classic theme in painting, still life. In this study of inanimate objects Zoë’s application remains curious and tender. The paintings command the same presence as portraiture and mark a stillness that Pawlak has recently claimed as her own. Imagined Vessels, records the tranquility of an object while designating the vessel as a holding space for new ideas, patience, and capacity.