Charisma from Valentino couture and Ewa's easel
Valentino's haute couture in dialogue with Ewa Juszkiewicz's portraits
Out of the archive and fresh from the painter's easel
These two designs, one in fabric and one on canvas, provide the motto for the current exhibition AURA at PM23, the cultural venue of the Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giametti on Piazza Mignanelli, the second show this year after VENUS .
The exhibits are intended to emanate a special AURA, to charismatically captivate visitors. Vediamo! Let's see!
Valentino's red evening gown from the Fall/Winter 2007/08 season, with its draped sleeves and bustier, evokes palm leaves and draws the eye to a portrait of a woman by Ewa Juszkiewicz (born 1984) wearing the same dress. The Polish painter created the painting specifically for this exhibition. Her Portrait in Valentino Red (2026), as well as her other 25 oil paintings, is certainly a tribute to the last fashion emperor of Italy (1932-2026), but by no means a mere illustration of his 38 haute couture dresses in the PM23 showroom.
A symbiotic exhibition of fashion art and painting. The painter herself selected pairing dresses from Valentino's archive to complement her exhibits.
The theme of fashion in complementary media? One might think so. The striking similarities in forms, motifs, and colors in both artistic worlds suggest this.
And what about the artistic intentions? Images of feminine beauty in transformation? Valentino was driven by the creation of beautiful fabric sculptures. Juszkiewicz, too, paints elegant gowns as vessels for feminine beauty. And that's where the similarities end.
Feminine beauty and social status
Valentino has dressed elite women from aristocratic families, the jet set, and the film industry with his haute couture designs. Those who wear Valentino adorn themselves with the reality—or illusion—of high social standing. His fashion designs have evolved over the decades, yet remain timelessly relevant as a fashion brand. The recently published photo book about Valentino's 50-year fashion empire provides illustrative evidence of this.
Juszkiewicz's fashion paintings have a completely different effect on me.
In her portraits, she depicts women faceless, their heads artfully veiled with fabrics, botanical elements, or hair creations. These portraits represent a generic female type: a beautiful shell that still needs to be imbued with personality. For the painter, identity clearly does not result from a noble, expressive gown that suggests the wearer's high social standing and recognition. "Clothes make the man" —this well-known saying (Fine feathers make fine birds), taken from the title of a novella by Gottfried Keller (1874)—no longer applies to Ewa Juszkiewicz.
Creative freedom in the portrayal of women
Ewa's starting point for many of her paintings is portraiture from the 17th to the 19th centuries. This was commissioned work for the nobility, clergy, and wealthy bourgeoisie. The aim was to represent a person's social status. The lifelike depiction of the grace and beauty of a noblewoman in refined, casual elegance and within the context of an upscale lifestyle—books, instruments, pedigree dogs, classical residential architecture, bucolic landscapes—was intended to convey status, wealth, and education.
Ewa Juszkiewicz has revolutionized this style of portraiture. Her surreal portraits of women dismantle traditional gender roles. Elegant garments do not make a woman a personality; rather, they used to be faceless status symbols in an outdated patriarchal society.
For some of her portraits, which reference the historical source in the subtitle, e.g., "After Thomas Sully," I tracked down the corresponding originals. Historical references don't stifle Ewa's creative energies. To me, her portraits seem like new creations from the tried and tested. Metamorphoses. Feminine beauty is more than a figure in an exclusive gown.
My readers can decide for themselves what constitutes the difference in Eva's designs. The good news: there is no single interpretation.
Ewa Juszkiewicz, "The Harpist" (2023)
Thomas Sully, "Lady with a Harp: Eliza Ridgely" (1818)Ewa Juszkiewicz, "Girl in Blue" (2013)
Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck, "Portrait of a Girl in Blue" (1641)Ewa Juszkiewicz, "In a Shady Valley, Near a Running Water" (2023)
François Gérard, "Portrait of Katarzyna Jaworska, Countess" (1803/04)Ewa Juszkiewicz, "Untitled" (2020)
Jan Adam Kruseman, "Porträt of Alida Christina Assink" (1833)Fashion, painting and people
The visitors' attention is sometimes focused on the fashion emperor, sometimes on the young painting talent, and always on the dialogue between master tailoring and innovative portraiture.
The dress style of the audience varies from stylish to casual:
Despite all the splendor of the colors and the magnificence of the fabrics and materials
vanitas motifs can also be seen hidden within: fresh leaves, sprouting buds, ripe fruits, dry grasses and falling leaves.
Slightly subdued by the memento mori , but filled with a charismatic series of images, I take a short breath on the familiar steps of the Fondazione. My muted, Germanic autumn colors serve as camouflage here. I might opt for Valentino Red soon ...
Highlights
continue to captivate me on Piazza Mignanelli when I go out in the early evening.
The artist Edoardo Tresoldi calls his creation "Selva", a "forest" of 16 metal-mesh columns, which, at 6 meters high, send plays of light into the Roman evening sky.
A Sunday of aesthetic superlatives.
Rome's Piazza Mignanelli is an open-air museum.
Valentino's fashion empire continues, the shop windows of his Bottega on the Piazza are filled with models for autumn/winter 2026/27, also in Valentino Red.
Ewa Juszkiewicz - renowned in Europe, the USA and Hong Kong - now achieves high sums for her paintings, at the top reaching $1.5 million, with which she supports, among other things, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
The exhibition AURA in PM23 will be on view from 18 October 2026 to 21 February 2027.
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