Artist: Isabelle Karolewicz
Ms Isabella Karolewicz is an Australian, Melbourne based artist who is passionate about the many beauties life has to offer. Her raw, natural talent was primarily nurtured through artist mentoring. She has completed a ‘Painting course’ at RMIT University where she is also currently studying a ‘Bachelor of Business’ degree.
Ms Karolewicz began her artistic journey focusing on traditional styles and portraiture, using oils, which are her favourite medium to work with. She quickly mastered the use of tonal values, colours, composition and light, which enabled her to transition into a more abstract style with ease by incorporating acrylics and other mediums. As a result she has now combined her two loves together; 'Contemporary and Traditional Art’. This has become her signature style that evokes a mixture of emotions in art elders. Staying true to her artistic vision, she has continued to produce these pieces that have proved to appeal and be appreciated by audiences of all ages and calibre.
Ms Karolewicz’s subjects vary from cityscapes to human form. Her strong appreciation of the perfections of the human body comes from her athletic background and is depicted in the figures throughout her paintings. More recently, her pride for the land she calls home, Australia, has led her to showcase its beauty through a semi-abstract approach of its cityscapes and landmarks, which now extends to other beautiful cities across the world that she has visited or is looking forward to experiencing. She cannot help but introduce hints of love in many of her pieces, which are also a reflection of her as an individual and her desire to spread the beauties of life in the world we live in.
Shophouses
Shophouses is an illustration of the quaint structures seen around neighbourhoods in Singapore. Constructed as early as the 1840s, shophouses were a common part of the pre-war urban Singapore landscape, and found across many other historic Southeast Asian cities. With modernisation, many shophouses were demolished and the remaining few have become landmarks of cultural significance after undergoing renovation. Ms Karolewicz’s romantic and elegant semi-abstract painting style encapsulates an idealised image of the past with the polished street surfaces and multicoloured, new shophouses that conveys feeling of nostalgia and longing.
In Shophouses, the streets are also mostly empty with the exception of a willowy female sauntering in the streets, a sporty cyclist, a fanatic photographer, and few couples loitering about. Ms Isabella Karolewicz’s human figures reflect her love for beauty and strength that extends to the human form. While shophouses are featured, the focus is on the graceful woman who is the centrepiece. Likewise, unlike the other individuals, the sophisticated lady is the only one painted to have skin. Given that Ms Karolewicz’s recent works were inspired by her travels to countries across the world, the woman may represent the artist herself as she wanders about the unfamiliar city starry-eyed. The audience occupy the same viewpoint as the female explorer who is back facing them, and this artist choice allows art goers to feel the woman’s anticipation and suspense. As J.R.R Tolkien best put it, “Not all those who wander are lost.”
Singapore Skyline
Attractions such as the Marina Bay Sands and the Marina Bay Science Museum are featured in Singapore Skyline by Ms Karolewicz. Separated by the crystalline waters, art goers may only appreciate the view from afar. As the skies dim, the dazzling city lights glisten like lustrous stars that illuminate the night. As if they were Gatsby gazing at the distant green light faraway across the dark shores, art appreciators gape at the wonders a river away.
Ms Isabella Karolewicz was once quoted as saying, “Life is always filled with beautiful moments, whether it be hints of romance, love or flowers blossoming. It is these simple beauties and emotions that are timeless and experienced by every generation. This mixture of styles aims to create a bridge between the past and the present, intertwining them together in a unique way. It has inspired me to bring a modern twist to well respected icons in beautiful cities from all around the world.”
The taupe and brownish shades of Singapore Skyline give the piece rustic, antique accents that are balanced by the white, yellow, and grey colours that elevate the piece further with a modern sensibility. Ms Isabella Karolewicz’s artwork portrays Singapore’s vogue, futuristic metropolis in a novel way by adding a classical touch. True to her word, her paintings reconcile the perceived gulf between the past and the present to demonstrate a continuity in the flow of time.
Joo Chiat
As one of the most heritage-rich neighborhoods in Singapore, Joo Chiat houses lines of conserved shophouses with trendy cafes and busy restaurants that sit beside it. In Joo Chiat, the spotlight has finally landed on the shophouses. There is another distinction from Shophouses whereby the colours in Ms Karolewicz’s Joo Chiat are more restrained, which gives the piece a solemn and downcast feel. The shophouses, while newly furnished and spotlessly clean, are replicas of themselves with few distinctive qualities. Could this allude to the superficial, hasty efforts to preserve Singapore’s architectural legacy whereby token conservation to attract tourists and visitors erase the peculiarities of artifacts? This question is left to the audience to ponder.
Ms Isabella Karolewicz who currently lives and works in Australia is able to produce soulful art pieces of Singapore places that appear to be out of a storybook, and we are honoured to have such a talented young artist paint our cityscapes. Her new perspectives and approaches to art and life highlight the value of cross-cultural exchange and travel. Saint Agustine sharply remarked that “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Ms Karolewicz’s accumulated insights are the product of her adventurousness that has given her a breadth of knowledge and experience.
