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Kasia Muzyka Treats Painting as Ritual

In The Sacred Condition of Being, Kasia Muzyka used wine, coffee, earth pigment, water, and egg tempera to explore memory, consciousness, and transformation.

Artist Kasia Muzyka sits among earth-toned abstract paintings and natural pigments
Kasia Muzyka

Kasia Muzyka presented The Sacred Condition of Being at 522 West 19th Street in Chelsea from June 12 through June 16, 2025. The Polish-born, Minneapolis-based artist approached abstraction as a form of ritual, using wine, coffee, earth pigments, vibrational water, and egg tempera to build surfaces concerned with origin, consciousness, memory, transformation, surrender, and choice.

TheNakedNYC Coverage

Photo Gallery: The Sacred Condition of Being

Circular motion gives the painting the character of a portal or unfolding memory. · Kasia Muzyka
Repeated marks create a measured field that shifts between order and interruption. · Kasia Muzyka
Nested bands suggest parallel paths held inside the same pictorial space. · Kasia Muzyka
A faint body-like presence appears within stains, lines, and mineral color. · Kasia Muzyka
Figuration surfaces briefly within a larger field of movement and material. · Kasia Muzyka
The composition expands outward from a central point of origin. · Kasia Muzyka

What to Know

Material Carried Symbolic Weight

Wine, coffee, soil-based pigments, specially prepared water, and egg tempera were not simply substitutes for conventional paint. Muzyka treated their histories and associations as active parts of the work.

Abstraction Operated as a Portal

Circles, spirals, radiating lines, and partly visible figures repeatedly suggest thresholds. The paintings ask viewers to read an image as both a physical surface and an invitation toward an unseen condition.

The Titles Establish a Sequence

Works including Zero, Before First Breath, I and Ja, 100, One, and Becoming Is a Spiral move through ideas of potential, embodiment, self-awareness, remembrance, and continuous change.

The Palette Remained Close to Earth

Muted rose, mineral green, brown, cream, charcoal, and restrained gold bind the paintings together. Their worn and layered surfaces make the works appear uncovered or weathered rather than freshly illustrated.

Muzyka Connects Studio Practice With Mysticism

Her process emphasizes intuition, close listening, and surrender while drawing on mysticism and quantum philosophy. The artist's official site maintains her biography and exhibition archive.

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