Small disturbances IV by Aleksandra Cegielska

Aleksandra’s paintings inhabit the intimate, often awkward spaces of female embodiment. Her subjects are never heroic; they are caught mid-thought, mid-smile, mid-error. A chipped nail, lipstick smudged on teeth, a wrongly fastened bra - these are the details that define her portraits. Her use of bold colors creates a dynamic push-pull between beauty and discomfort, surface and depth. Her contribution to this exhibition is both autobiographical and universal - a testament to the micro-traumas and private triumphs inscribed in the female body. Her work, like the exhibition itself, insists that what is often dismissed as insignificant is, in fact, everything. 

Aleksandra Cegielska (b. 1985, Poland) is a Basel-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, textiles, and performance. Rooted in feminist pop art, her work challenges societal constraints - particularly those imposed on women - through humor, irony, and sharp social critique.

Influenced by early memories of fabric and fashion, Cegielska’s art confronts norms around identity, gender roles, and body autonomy. She employs accessible mediums like posters and banners to question power structures and redefine boundaries, believing that art should provoke change and remain open to all.

Artist's full profile can be found here

This artwork was part of SMALL DISTURBANCES exhibition in June 2025. 

What is it that unsettles us, not with a crash but with a murmur? What do we overlook that, once seen, cannot be unseen? The show is less about grand gestures and more about the gravitational pull of the unnoticed - the broken thread, the flawed line, the offbeat rhythm that exposes a deeper pattern beneath.

This show embodies the idea that change rarely arrives as thunder - it begins with a quiet shift in the air, a subtle redirection of focus. The artists in this exhibition do not shout. They nudge, whisper, tease, and provoke. They understand that the small is never just small. It is the seed of something much larger. 

More about the exhibition you can find here.