Agata Zaleszczyk – Hamme was born in Lublin, Poland. She completed a B.A. in fine art in 2007 at Kingston University, London, followed by an M.A. in art & design in education from the Institute of Education, London in 2011. While still at the art college, her collaborative artwork Untitled 4 was exhibited at the Royal Academy´s Summer Exhibition 2007 and it was subsequently shortlisted for the BBC Two Newcomer's Prize. From 2014, she has been living and working in Berlin, Germany. She specialises in drawing and painting.
About her work:
Zaleszczyk's work is an ongoing creative exploration, in which the line, the brushstroke, the colour themselves tell the actual stories. The subject-matter of her motives is of secondary nature, but it provides the framework of the artist's identity as a woman, an art educator, a Slav, a migrant, a daughter, a wife, a physical being, a keen moviegoer… etc. In her work, the ´what´ becomes a mere pretext for the much more interesting ´how´.
Zaleszczyk `writes` little meanings or messages into her work which stay obscured by the elements she uses, deep in the private sphere of the people she portrays. Yet, those transcend onto the surface and thus make up for the political and social diemnsion of her work. She believes that „all art always relies on the audience and its agency to discern and negotiate the meaning where the personal politics meet the collective gaze."