– What you see in front of you is a painterly tale of colourful nebulae arising from the accumulation of dust, gases and particles, - said Marta Szaszkiewicz, Director of the Gdańsk University Museum, at the opening of the Secrets of the Stars exhibition. The colourful and dynamic paintings of dr Karolina Wojnowska-Paterek can now be admired at the UG Main Library!

The opening of the exhibition took place on Thursday, June 15. The event was attended, among others, by the university authorities, scientists from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science and members of the UG academic community. 

– Imagine that there was a stage in the universe where everything looked like the tiny fragments immortalised in the paintings, said dr hab. Marcin Wieśniak, prof. UG, author of the exhibition catalogue. – The entire young universe was filled with a cloud of hydrogen. Only then were the first stars born. This process took at least 150 million years.

This period and these phenomena inspired the series of paintings, Secrets of the Stars by dr Karolina Wojnowska-Paterek, whose art is interdisciplinary. Recently, the artist also prepared the art installation Wanderings of Light, which popularises the ideas of quantum mechanics. The painter most often undertakes projects related to light, colour and the shaping of space in the broadest sense.

Due to the subject matter of the Secrets of the Stars series, the exhibition space was prepared differently than before. In the darkened room, space graphics made of translucent material hang from the ceiling. On the walls, as the only illuminated elements in the room, are paintings by dr Karolina Wojnowska-Paterek. The new exhibition at BUG UG features works with titles such as Travels of Light and The Cat's Eye Nebula.

– Themes for research and artistic consideration come from observation. In every era, developments in science directly influence what happens in art. Nowadays, the Art&Science trend is inspired by, among other things, artificial intelligence, - said the author of the exhibition Secrets of the – Artists enter laboratories and try to participate in science development. Still, I think that the most important role of this current will be to introduce certain concepts and problems that scientists consider in social thinking. 

The Secrets of the Stars exhibition will be on display in the main building of the University of Gdańsk Library until August 20 this year—a catalogue of the exhibition, edited by prof. Marcin Wieśniak also premiered at the opening.

– Karolina Wojnowska-Paterek's paintings, which we have the pleasure of presenting at the University of Gdańsk in the exhibition 'Secrets of the Stars, What do science and art have in common?', allow us to take a close look at galaxies, billions of light years away, and thanks to the scientific commentaries to the paintings inspired by nebulae, stars and galaxies, we learn more about these celestial bodies and the phenomena taking place there, the Rector of the University of Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski announced in the catalogue of the exhibition. -

The exhibition was prepared by Marta Szaszkiewicz and Magdalena Jaszcza, curators from the UG Museum.