MONIKA GRYGIER
Spain, 1970
Monika Grygier’s work approaches abstraction as a way to explore what is not visible yet shapes our experience: silence, time, and inner tension. Her paintings are built through controlled layers of acrylic, graphite, and precise structural gestures that create inner landscapes and surfaces functioning as emotional cartographies. Her visual language combines rigor and sensitivity, offering spaces of contemplation where hidden rhythms, frictions, concentrations, and subtle resonances invite the viewer to slow down and enter an intimate, quiet terrain.
CV
Bio
Monika Grygier is a visual artist whose practice explores abstraction as a territory where silence, time, and inner landscapes take form. Born in Poland and based in Catalonia, she works with controlled layers of acrylic, graphite, and structural elements to create paintings that function as cartographies of emotional and perceptual experience. Her visual language—precise, rigorous, and deeply introspective—investigates the tensions, rhythms, and subtle frictions that shape the human condition.
Formally trained in Fine Arts at the University of Opole and the University of Silesia, where she studied under Jerzy Wroński of the historic Grupa Krakowska, Grygier developed a solid foundation in contemporary painting. Over the years, her work has been presented internationally in solo exhibitions across Europe and in group shows and fairs in New York, Berlin, Shanghai, London, Brussels, and other cultural capitals. Her paintings have received major distinctions such as the Premi Centelles, Premio Ceferino Olivé, Altafulla Biennial, and ConectARTE International Art Contest.
Her works form part of public and private collections including Michelin, Fundació Reddis, Paradores Nacionales, the Consulate of Poland in Ljubljana, museums in Praszka and Sant Feliu de Guíxols, and numerous municipal collections.
Beyond her individual practice, Grygier is founder and president of IDEA Asociación Cultural, a platform through which she has built an international network supporting artistic exchanges, residencies, European collaborations, and sociocultural projects that link creation, community, and territory.
Her current work continues to delve into abstraction as a means of mapping what is not visible yet deeply felt, offering viewers a space of contemplation and resonance.
Education
1996 – Fine Arts studies, University SLASKI of Cieszyn, Poland.
1993 – BFA, University of Opole, Poland, under Prof. Stanislaw Bialoglowicz.
Student of Jerzy Wroński (Grupa Krakowska).
Solo Exhibitions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Most recent first)
Centre Cultural Can Gruart, Vilablareix, Girona, Spain — 2021
Castell de Palol de Revardit, Girona, Spain — 2020
Centrum Kultury Wroclaw Zachod, Wroclaw, Poland — 2017
Galeria Bluer, Padua, Italy — 2016
Galeria Art en Brut, Girona, Spain — 2016
MINIgalerie, Lucerne, Switzerland — 2013
Espai d’Art Celler Espelt, Vilajuïga, Spain — 2013
Espacio Cultural Adolfo Domínguez, Zaragoza, Spain — 2010
El Marçó Vell, Centelles, Spain — 2010
Galeria Carmen Sallent, Barcelona, Spain — 2009
Galeria O+O, Valencia, Spain — 2009
Palacio Salazar, Logroño, Spain — 2009
Group Exhibitions
GROUP EXHIBITIONS (Most recent first)
Empordoneses, Figueres, Spain — 2020
Galería Marges-U, Cadaqués, Spain — 2019
Galerie d’Art du Parc, Québec, Canada — 2016
Galeria Mlodych Twórców, Warsaw, Poland — 2016
Slikarska Kolonija Izlake-Zagorje, Slovenia — 2016
Art Vs. Walls, Berlin, Germany
Shanghai Art Fair, China
Arts2Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
KUNSTART, Bolzano, Italy
ST-ART Contemporary Art Fair, Strasbourg, France
AAF London, UK
CultureInside Gallery, Luxembourg
Room Art Fair, Madrid, Spain
Ruta de l’Art, Castelló d’Empúries, Spain
Sala Fontbernat, Anglès, Spain
Antic Hospital de Sant Julià, Besalú, Spain
Poczta z Polski, Reus, Spain
La Rectoria, Tossa de Mar, Spain
ArtJaén, Provincial Museum, Jaén, Spain
“5 Apuestas”, Galería Espiral, Cantabria, Spain
“Envío de Polonia”, Galería Río 10, Burgos, Spain
Palacio de Albaicín, Noja, Spain
ArtMadrid, Madrid, Spain
CultureInside “Time Stream”, Luxembourg
RESIDENCIES & SYMPOSIA
XIX International Fine Arts Colony, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Sianoja International Symposium, Noja, Spain.
Symposium Ceramicum, Medana, Slovenia.
Slikarska Kolonija Izlake–Zagorje, Slovenia.
Prizes & Awards
AWARDS AND PRIZES
Winner, LXVII Premi Centelles, Barcelona, Spain.
Winner, V Premio de Pintura Ceferino Olivé, Reus, Tarragona.
Winner, I Bienal de Pintura Altafulla, Tarragona.
Winner, XXII Concurso de Artes Plásticas, Begur, Girona.
Winner, ConectARTE International Art Contest.
Second Prize, I Salón CIALEC, Córdoba.
Second Prize, IV Bienal Internacional Josep Amat, Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
Second Prize, L’Art-Gent Painting Prize, Argentona, Barcelona.
Third Prize, VII Certamen Internacional “Aires de Córdoba”.
Third Prize, XXVIII Premio de Pintura Vila de Cambrils, Tarragona.
Honor Diploma, Premio COAATR, Logroño.
Accésit Michelín, 4º Certamen de Pintura Deportiva Marca, Madrid.
Collections
Michelín Art Collection
Fundación Privada Reddis
Paradores Nacionales, Spain
Municipal collections of Cambrils, Noja, Centelles, Begur, Altafulla
Consulate of Poland in Ljubljana, Slovenia
Museo de Historia, Sant Feliu de Guíxols
Museo Municipal de Praszka, Poland
University SLASKI, Poland
IN STUDIO
Joan Gol
Mas d’en Dorra
Monika Grygier
CONCEPTS & MORE
Semanas
Series Semanas, which examines the relationship between time, structure, and urban experience. Following the observation made by critic Jaume Fàbrega—who identified in my work “urban landscapes and the times of the soul”—these paintings address the shifting architecture of days and hours, not through representation, but through an abstract spatial logic that organizes rhythms, displacements, and tensions. The compositions are articulated through angles, directions, and floating elements that suggest temporal flows, ruptures, and continuities. This approach aligns with readings published in ArtisSpectrum, which noted the capacity of my paintings to integrate formal collisions into coherent and dynamic structures.
Cartografías del Silencio
Series Cartografías del Silencio (2025), a project in which I examine how internal processes—emotional, perceptive, and psychological—can take form through abstraction. These works are constructed through controlled layers of acrylic, graphite, and occasionally ABS, generating structures, tensions, and areas of friction that operate as maps of non-visible territories. Each painting articulates boundaries, directions, and eroded surfaces that refer to spaces of silence, containment, and concentration, understood as zones of analysis rather than poetic states. The intention is to translate a complex inner experience into a visual language that is precise, rigorous, and distilled, in continuity with the conceptual framework that defines this series.
