Karolina Jabłońska Ripped Self-Portrait, 2026

The sketched self-portrait is a recurring motif in Karolina Jabłońska’s practice: a drawn form of the likeness that serves throughout her work as both personal stand-in and alter ego. Executed in oil on canvas, the large-scale work presents a sketched self-portrait on white paper, torn into four sections and reassembled out of order. The sketch carries the artist’s identifiable features—prominent eyebrows, large eyes, full lips—yet because the fragments have been rotated and rearranged, the features no longer align: the eyes appear at opposite corners of the composition. The fragmented sketch lies on a ground of dry autumn leaves and scattered stones, rendered in muted ochres and browns that contrast with the stark monochrome of the drawing. The work can be understood within an auto-theoretical impulse, a mode of artistic practice that combines theory with autobiography as a means of critical reflection.