Artist Maja Godlewska has spent decades traveling the world, capturing the evolving relationship between humanity and the environment.
Mint Museum Uptown: Level 2, Mezzanine, Levels 3 and 4, Mint Museum Store
“I explore beauty, permanence and decay in my creative work. I look to phenomena that occur between form and formlessness, order and chaos, things that seem permanent, yet are subject to change and evolution…clouds, stains, patterns of growth and decay.” –Maja Godlewska
Through residencies across Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas, Godlewska has witnessed firsthand the transformative, and often disruptive, impact of human activity on natural landscapes.
Over the past two decades, Godlewska’s work has explored the tension between nature and human presence. Sightseeing, eco-tourism, and global travel may seem benign, but they alter ecosystems, reshape coastlines, and leave lasting marks on jungles, oceans, monuments, and mountain ranges. Her paintings confront this paradox, capturing both the awe-inspiring beauty and subtle devastation. Using watercolor paper and ink, her installations form undulating, sculptural surfaces that evoke terrain, memory, and movement. These works serve as a quiet resistance to the “insta-consumption” of natural beauty in the digital age, offering space for slow looking and reflection.
Godlewska is a professor and area coordinator for painting in the department of art and art history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her accolades include a Fulbright Fellowship, two North Carolina Arts Council Fellowships, several Charlotte Arts and Science Council grants, a Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship, a Tempus Mobility Grant from the European Union, and multiple faculty research grants.