Back in 2020 during lockdown I was at my family home in Poland helping my mum clear out her wardrobe. We came across a beautifully hand-embroidered chemise that had belonged to my great-great-great-grandmother. It had been folded away for decades, so it was covered in deep creases. I found something very poetic about this, and I was immediately drawn to it.
The first drawing I created with the chemise unintentionally became a self-portrait. It depicts a figure standing with her back turned to the viewer, wearing the chemise- as if I were carrying my heritage while simultaneously turning away from it. It felt like a metaphor for how I experienced being an emigrant: drawn towards what is familiar and known, while also feeling the pull of the unknown.
The piece is a watercolour painting on paper and comes unframed. The photograph of the work in a frame gives you an idea of how it could look framed and displayed on the wall.
Regular price
£1,800.00 GBP
Regular priceSale price
£1,800.00 GBP
Sale
Sold
Couldn't load pickup availability
About Zuzanna Salamon
Selected for the 2023 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2023 RSA Annual Exhibition, and recipient of numerous awards including the RSA John Kinross Scholarship, the Florence Academy of Art Scholarship (2025), and multiple de Laszlo Foundation Prizes. Feathers recur in Zuzanna Salamon's work, gesturing towards her...
Concerned about buying a piece you haven’t seen in the flesh? ▾
We don’t currently have a gallery space where you can view the work in person, though depending on where you’re based, a studio visit can sometimes be arranged. What we’ve found, overwhelmingly, over twenty-two years: when someone falls for a piece on screen, the real thing is more, not less. Colour, surface, scale, presence. It works that way around. It’s why, across two decades, our returns have been minuscule.
But rest assured: if it isn’t right when it arrives, it can be returned within fourteen days.
