During the opening, there will be an accordion concert performed by Ryszard Lubieniecki (Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz). The program includes: Ryszard Lubieniecki Concerto for the left hand and accordion’s tutti, part 1, Andrzej Krzanowski Two Canons, Petri Makkonen Disco-Toccata.
Joanna strainer is an artist who consistently follows her own original artistic path, without succumbing to momentary trends. She selects topics close to everyday reality, but explores its sensual way, focusing on human emotions. Using a variety of media, alone or involving different social groups in her projects, she analyses the emotional states associated with man. This is evident both in the „Happiness around me” project and in the „Notions”, where irregular splashes of colour shifting into fantastic creatures also can be perceived as a metaphor for such conditions. The fact that the artist is interested in mostly positive emotions, especially happiness, makes reception of her works even more interesting and encourages reflection.
(Magdalena Toczydłowska-Talarczyk)
Notions
Originally drawings appeared in the margins of notebooks, random sheets of papers during phone calls or shopping bills found in the purse. Quirky, but cute „creatures and monsters” are born from various blurs and splashes of paint. They float on the surface of an image, filling it almost completely. They penetrate each other, springing from different sides and grow into the other.

Happiness around me
The Happiness around me work is part of the In the Pursuit of Happiness” series where I try to answer the question: what is happiness and what measures are needed to achieve it?
To do the job I invited 169 people. The youngest of them was 7.5 years old, the oldest – 87 years old. The group was dominated by participants aged 20-30 years. Each of them had to draw their first thought associated with happiness.
According to the collected responses, the recipe for happiness seems to be very simple: just create a family filled with love, which in the light and warmth of sunlight and in lush floral nature rests and relaxes along with her beloved pet.
I freely transformed the collected extensive material, becoming the creator of happiness around me.

Joanna Sitko is a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Torun, got her diploma at the Department of Intermedia Art of Prof. Wiesław Smużny. Since 2010, she’s a doctoral student in Fine Arts at the local university, and the student of the sixth-year student of the Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, specializing in paper and leather.
She makes her art primarily with photographic images and videos. Her artistic interests revolve around issues related to interpersonal relationships and feelings. In the videos (interviews) she looks for „good”: the ideal, love, happiness. Recently, she took up drawing. She gladly combines it with newer media, creating multi-disciplinary installations.
She participated in such exhibitions as:
– Festival of Video Art „Points of View”
– 6th Festival of One-Minute Movies and Forms „The One Minutes”,
– International Festival of Visual Art inSPIRACJE/apocalypse
– Przeprojekt (Uber-Project), Centre of Modern Art, Toruń: „Nice Art”, „Adjusting Reception”, „Second-Hand”, „Please touch”