Monika Martini-Madej is a painter based between Poznań, Poland, and Madeira, Portugal. She holds an MA with distinction from the Faculty of Painting, Graphic Arts and Sculpture at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznań (1995), and an MA in theatre directing from the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw (2002).

Before focusing primarily on painting, she worked in professional theatre as a director and stage designer. She also created animated films with Studio Filmów Animowanych in Poznań and Polish Television (TVP); they were presented at festivals and broadcast on television.

For many years, acrylic painting has been at the centre of her practice. In recent works, she extends the painted surface through stitching and darning, allowing thread to become an integral part of the image. Her work is held in private collections in Poland and internationally.

In some of my series, my experience of theatre and animated film returns like an afterimage. Directing and stage design shaped the way I think about a painting: not only as an autonomous work, but as part of a wider interplay between space, light, scale, narrative and human presence.

I am interested in paintings that have their own tension and presence, while remaining in dialogue with their surroundings and with the person who spends time with them. The conceptual dimension of a painting matters to me as much as its materiality.

2002 – MA in Theatre Directing, The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art, Warsaw

1995 – MA with distinction, Faculty of Painting, Graphic Arts and Sculpture, State Higher School of Fine Arts (PWSSP), Poznań (now the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts); supervised by Izabella Gustowska and Kazimierz Urbański

2025 – Canções de água [Songs of Water], Biblioteca Municipal de São Vicente, Madeira

2023 – Spokojnie–Niespokojnie [Calm–Restless], Vinci Art Gallery, Poznań

1996 – Videoinstalacje [Video Installations], Galeria ON, Poznań

2021 – Kobiety [Women], Vinci Art Gallery, Poznań

2018 – Izotop [Isotope], Galeria R20, Poznań

2000 – Rysunek 2000. Mazowieckie Refleksje [Drawing 2000: Masovian Reflections], Galeria Lufcik, Warsaw

1996 – Rysunek [Drawing], Galeria Lufcik, Warsaw

1995 – Rekomendacje [Recommendations], BWA Gallery, Poznań

1995 – Artwork for the Impresje film series, BWA Gallery, Poznań

1994 – IV pracownia bez tytułu [Studio IV: Untitled], Galeria ON, Poznań (artists from Prof. Izabella Gustowska’s studio)

from 1995 – animated films broadcast on TVP1, TVP Polonia and TVP Kultura

from 2002 – directing and stage design for professional theatres

full list of productions and films: Theatre & Film

private collections in Poland and abroad