An Interview With Natalia Kleszczewska
Natalia Kleszczewska is an artist who seamlessly blends traditional and digital art techniques, crafting captivating works that explore the intersection of past and future. Her paintings, often featuring humanoid figures or introspective portraits, are steeped in a melancholic atmosphere, reminiscent of 80s horror, neo-noir, and the melancholic tones of synthpop and New Wave. At the heart of her work lies the intriguing concept of the 'spectrum': something that yearns for the future yet remains tethered to the past, washed away by the tides of cultural memory. Kleszczewska masterfully translates this concept into a unique visual language, creating an artificial romanticism that feels both familiar and utterly alien.
Can you tell us a little bit about you?
My name is Natalia Kleszczewska and I’m an artist based in Poland, Silesia. I focus my work on paintings and graphic arts. In 2023 I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, with a diploma with distinction in graphic arts. Painting was originally my additional diploma project, but after graduation, my work became mainly oil painting. I find this medium very universal and fascinating (workshop-like but also historically), but at the same time, I cultivate the idea of searching for graphic values in paint and vice versa. I was born and raised on the other side of Poland, in the region of Suwalszczyzna. I decided to stay in Silesia for now, it’s where I create and collaborate with various artists and galleries.
You mention a fascination with "the spectrum" and a "new, artificial romanticism." Can you elaborate on these concepts and how they manifest in your paintings?
The “spectrum” and "new, artificial romanticism" were statements that I evolved, these are some of the main attributes of the themes in my works. “Spectrum” is something I was quite obsessed about during my time as an art student. I like to refer to it as phantom also. To put it simply, it’s a specific kind of character I operate in my paintings and its world. It is a ghostly figure, haunting my created spaces. I don’t want to call them particularly human; I like the alienation effect on it. “New and artificial romanticism” is on the other hand, far more complex. It is something I come up with while writing about my paintings. I am really fascinated by old media but also have fixations about imaginations of the future. It’s something like a fusion of what we know well and it's considered romantic, an old soul with something from another realm, like an alien figure who has its own compass of what is romantic to it and it is not known to us at all. My work is also heavily inspired by the theory about hauntology. Particularly about what Mark Fisher wrote about it in his book and essays. In short, it’s about how old media or ideas about the future can still haunt our present image of the future and its aesthetics. The idea of retro-futuristic themes still haunting today’s imagination is a really important theme in my work.
Black Beauty - 2024
What role does the "humanoid form" or "internal portrait" play in your paintings, and how do you convey the sense of melancholic voids and empty scenes?
At first, these humanoid forms were simple like little doppelgänger versions of me or my emotional statements, but in time they have evolved into a group of unknown creatures that want to participate in macabre/flirty theater of my own. I think, by that time, they became more separate from me. That “person” is the reflection of a particular feeling or event, simply the personification of it. It’s a similar situation to being like an actor, standing on an empty stage, performing as something else. Sceneries, at first, were actually just a safe kind of voids, for essentially focus only on the person… This person is separated from all the noises of the everyday realm. Over time, however, these abandoned sceneries, haunted houses, empty meadows, or woods became an amplification of what the characters represent.
How do you balance the elements of beauty and horror in your work? Do you find that these two elements enhance each other, or do they create a sense of dissonance or unease?
The biggest two components of my ideas are the feeling of a flirt and the feeling of horror. This is something that draws me toward different media I feel inspired by. It’s the feeling of appreciation for something that can be monster-like or alien but in a charming way; like a favorite new wave song or neo-noir films. It’s like meeting a 19th-century vampire who can be disgusting when you think about its rituals, but on the outside, it’s very hypnotizing and elegant. I managed to balance these two elements by focusing on a particular story that interested me at the time, not just on the aesthetic of the portrait. Therefore the most seducing things seem always very mysterious at all times. I draw inspiration from various artifacts of the past, old stories, and lost futures, so everything melancholic and mysterious is dear to my heart. The feeling of unease but also weird attraction is very plot-like action, as in the climactic moment in a forgotten horror movie, just before the terrifying realization.
Frustration - 2024
How do you use color in your work to convey emotion and create atmosphere? Are there any particular color palettes or combinations that are central to your aesthetic?
I am attracted by the much colder color pallet. To be honest, color is the most symbolic thing in my works. The most inspirational to me are cool shades of old artifacts from all over the world. How old steel is rusting or wood figures are rotting away and create these cold, metal-like shades of greens, blues, and brown accents. I am talking about the figures and artifacts; because in my opinion, they give the most ghost-like feeling which is necessary in my work. It is about representing the look of an abandoned object but also something human trapped inside. I’m in love with green shades, which are, at the same time, associated with nature and toxicity.
How do you see your work evolving in the future?
My work is evolving just like me. I let it flow its own way (with a little bit of awareness of itself) and see where it can take me. The more I explore the more I want to create.
She Dragon - 2024
Looking back at your childhood, can you identify any experiences, like books, movies, or specific memories, that sparked your current artistic interests or helped shape the themes you explore in your work today?
Thinking about it, I was always obsessed with creating my own worlds with mystical creatures. I was fixated on fantasy or sci-fi and was really just a geek kid, with a sketchbook by her side, always ready to scribble something new. Also, collecting various books about mythologies, dragons or fantasies was something that really inspired me back in the day. I particularly remember a scary and old Hungarian book titled “Seven-legged Horse” with crazy legends in it about devil creatures and moral but gory stories.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face as an artist?
I think my biggest challenge was and still is to compromise my everyday life and a job with being a full-time artist. it’s difficult being an artist, especially at the beginning of your career, but if you’re really into it you can’t imagine doing it any other way. I balance my art career with being a graphic designer and also a teacher. Fortunately, at the moment I can focus mostly on my art.
Your favourite book or film and why?
I really enjoy old but very colorful cinema. My favorites are currently Kwaidan (1964), old Suspiria (1977), and the House (1977). I really enjoy the grotesque scenes mixed with mythological themes and weird horror narrations. Sometimes I get huge inspiration from the specific shots from the films I like, especially the ones with the face gestures, and theatrical poses. The stability of a body, frozen in the exact moment of action, and a face reflecting all the emotions narrating the scene; this is what I am looking for in films; this theatrical tone in it.
Are you working on any projects you are particularly excited about?
I don’t want to spoil anything but currently, I am very excited about my new series of sculptured masks I am working on. Theatre has always been a big inspiration in my art. I am currently in the process of creating a series of different ghostly emotions in clay, transforming gestures and faces I paint into spatial objects and possibly creating the scenography for them too.