Born in Warsaw, Poland, Ala received MFA in printmaking and graphic design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Upon completing her master thesis she was awarded a state grant for young new artists.
She continued her work in printmaking and graphic design living and exhibiting in Holland, Norway, Berlin, and New York. During that time she produced a series of works paying homage to her mentor and the famous Polish school of poster art.
After moving to Cleveland, Ohio, she opened a studio in St. Vincent Quadrangle where she works in painting and printmaking techniques. Her works consists largely of intaglio, mono-prints, and large watercolors, though she explores other media as well. One of her favorite techniques is dry point, a method with power and risk of great immediacy and directness similar to that of ink drawing. Lift ground, aquatint, deep relief and embossing, and other processes follow with more complex layering of imagery. Each print is made with particular attention to the quality and character of line and its unique expression. The goal of this process is not to replicate a particular premeditated design or a formal arrangement, but to treat each impression of the plate as a complete artistic statement.
The images of humans and animals interweaved with symbolic or abstract surroundings examine the connection between the primal and the sublime. The themes range from those inspired by her favorite poets and writers to personal reflections on human condition to those influenced by other artists such as Giotto, Clemente, Dubuffet, Hockney and Tomaszewski.
Poetry is often a source of inspiration for her – as in the “Barbarian in the Garden” and “Mephisto and Androgyne” series – it provides a conduit between the intuitive, sensual and unspoken reality and the temporary sensation of being.
“Mothers and Daughters” and “Kristina” deal with issues of women in context of their gender and relationships with others. They are often treated as silhouettes, fleeting shapes captured in a momentary light or shadow, like their lives, passions and sorrows.
Ala’s art is very personal and does not belong to any style or movement, though she is a member of City Artists at Work, a group of local artists that sponsor annual community outreach events and shows downtown Cleveland along the Superior Art District. The group recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with a show in the Mansfield Art Center Gallery.
Ala exhibited her work in a number of individual and group shows in regional, national and international venues including LCC Gallery, Dead Horse Gallery, and Spaces, Ohio; New World Art Center and Oxford Gallery, New York; Drammen Hall, Norway; Amsterdam University, Netherlands; BMD Gallery, Gdansk Gallery, and Poznan Cathedral, Poland.
Her art is featured in private, corporate and public collections in USA, Poland, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Spain and Austria, including American Greetings art collection.