Karolina Jabłońska The crowd, 2023

This large-scale work by Karolina Jabłońska belongs to her series featuring a generalized self-portrait with identifiable characteristics including a captivating facial expression, large brown eyes, and prominent bushy eyebrows.

Presenting Jabłońska’s unique figurative style, the work depicts multiple likenesses of the artist - forming a crowd, where figures overlap, merge, or blur into one another. Despite sharing facial similarities, each character is individually portrayed; some wearing hoods, others wrapped in scarves, and one with tousled hair.

The theme of blending into a crowd underscores Jabłońska’s exploration of the complex relationship between visibility and invisibility. As a tribute to the enduring struggle of past and present generations of Polish women for recognition, the piece serves as a powerful statement on the demand and right to be visible. Yet, in contemplating this dynamic interplay, the work also considers how the desire for invisibility can take root, particularly in the context of personal challenges or significant political events that may lead one to simply crave solitude and a retreat from public view.