Japan — Form and Experience • Dagmara Okła “Nihonga — In a Japanese Garden”
About the event
The exhibition presents painting in the Nihonga technique — a traditional Japanese style shaped in the 19th century as an expression of protecting national artistic identity from Western influences. It uses noble materials: mineral pigments, ink, metal leaf (gold and silver) and handmade washi paper. Nihonga remains almost unknown in Europe, mainly due to limited access to authentic Japanese raw materials and the complex, time‑consuming creation process. For the artist, Nihonga painting is a contemporary form of alchemy, combining intuition with recipe‑like precision. The process of making paints by hand resembles preparing old medicinal formulas — from selecting pigments to laboratory‑level accuracy in mixing components. It is a story of patience and a rare form of art today, where the process is as important as the finished picture.
Dagmara Okła is a visual artist specializing in traditional Japanese Nihonga painting, whose creative path led her through Kyoto — the heart of Japanese artistic tradition. During a two‑year stay in Kyoto she studied classical arts:
- Shodō calligraphy
- Haiku poetry
- Nō theatre
- Kintsugi lacquer ceramic repair
- Ikebana flower arranging
She is currently studying Nihonga at Kyoto University of the Arts, building her own artistic language at the intersection of Japanese tradition and the practice she gained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź.
The exhibition can be seen during: 6.02-1.03.2026
GALERIA NA SMOLNEJ — Smolna 9 (entrance from Al. Jerozolimskich)
