Karolina Bielawska's 'Sparrow's Heart' at Wschód, Warsaw: A Review

Key facts

• Karolina Bielawska's solo exhibition Sparrow's Heart is on view at Wschód in Warsaw from September 18 to October 31, 2026.
• The exhibition features midnight-through-lilac-blue paintings, each depicting the trace of a bird, including works from the 1000 Beats series (2026) and In a body (2024).
• Bielawska is primarily known as a painter whose monochrome work recalls Carmen Herrera and Ellsworth Kelly.
• The title references the fragility of a sparrow's body—a sparrow cannot sustain a rapid heartbeat—and the bird's non-migratory nature, occupying the same few hundred meters its entire life.
• Bielawska's paintings block entranceways and take flight from the gallery's white walls, forcing visitors to walk around a garden to experience the exhibition.
• Bielawska has painted temporary markings around the perimeter of Wschód to aid this rethinking of white cube seclusion.
• In Wschód's Black Box video room, Bielawska screens an excerpt from Alan Parker's 1984 film Birdy, a psychological drama about human flight and mental trauma.
• The film has been an enduring influence on Bielawska since she first saw it in her adolescence.