Poetry Reading Closes Art Exhibit At Sarasota’s Chasen Galleries II

SARASOTA, FL — An exhibit at Chasen Galleries II, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, featuring abstract paintings by Polish artist Basia Sawa, who now calls Sarasota home, closes Tuesday evening with a poetry reading.

The exhibit also includes several of her poems on display, alongside her paintings, and she’ll read several pieces at the event. She told Patch that including her poetry, at the encouragement of her installation artist husband, Wojtek Sawa, and the gallery manager, Jozef Batko, brought extra meaning to her work.

“I’m sure it added something to the paintings, and everything together (poetry and art) was a story about me, but it seemed like people (attending the exhibit) are looking for things like that also — the words so they can get some feelings,” Basia told Patch.

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Wojtek added, “She was reluctant to bring her poetry in public, but Jozef and I pushed her to show it. An art show is a nice environment for poetry, especially when you have abstract paintings. There’s a connection between poetry and abstract painting.”

The artist will read some of her poetry at the event. She’ll be joined by her husband, his sister — Jadwiga Sawa, a Maryland-based author of a book of poetry — Polish-American author Aldek Roman and Nika Zusin, whose sculptures are on display at the exhibit.

While they create their pieces separately, Basia and Wojtek Sawa are used to collaborating with each other on art projects and events.

The creative couple has been together for 41 years. They met in Poland in the early 1980s when Basia was hired to write the screenplay for a movie Wojtek was directing for a Polish public television network.

“From the very beginning, I think art brought us together,” he said.

The country was still under communist rule at the time, and Wojtek, who was critical of the government, was kicked out of Poland during a period of martial law. The couple had only been together for about a year at the time.

“It was a very traumatic start to our relationship,” he said. “I had no idea if I was ever going to see her again.”

Basia said, “It was crazy. For a few months, I didn’t get anything from him, and he was writing a letter every day.”

For about three months, the Polish government held onto any letters he sent back home, eventually sending them all in one package to Basia. When she received them, each letter was opened and censored.

While he was able to get back to Poland by 1982, Wojtek wasn’t allowed to make films because of his issues with communist authorities.

“We didn’t know if they would separate us again and when we had the chance to go, we both left the country, hoping we would come back soon,” he said.

They landed in the United States and now call Sarasota home. It wasn’t an easy transition, though, as Basia didn’t speak English.

“When I was in Poland, I didn’t paint a lot. I was writing more,” she said. “I started painting when I came to the U.S. I almost completely stopped talking.”

Wojtek’s work also shifted gears after moving overseas. Now, he primarily created installations for museums and galleries.

He’s grateful that he and his wife are able to continue working together whenever possible.

“It’s gratifying for me and Basia. We’re not young people anymore,” he said. “It’s wonderful to be making art together. It’s another stream of life and awareness that helps Basia and me love life and just engage with life. We both help each other in our art projects and it’s a wonderful way to communicate with the world.”

This past spring, they worked together to organize a showcase of artwork created by Ukrainian children — both those who are now refugees in Poland and some who remain in their homeland, despite the Russian bombings — at Chasen Galleries II. The exhibition was designed to give the children, whose families and lives were uprooted because of Russia’s invasion of their country, a creative outlet.

Prints of their artwork were available to purchase. The Sawas traveled to Poland this past summer, where they were able to meet some of the refugee children whose work had been on display in Sarasota. They held special events for the children – some attending a school in Gdansk, Poland, others at an orphanage that moved from Ukraine to just outside Warsaw – and gave each one $100 from the money raised from the sale of their prints.

“It was absolutely wonderful. For us it was magical to connect faces with drawings, with the artwork,” Wojtek said. “Before there was a lot of personality that spoke through the artwork itself but wasn't connected to a human being.”

Basia added, “We were preparing those drawings here (in Sarasota) for a few months and then we could see the kid who was drawing this. We saw the feelings connected to these drawings and then we saw the kids and it was magical. I just loved it.”