November 11, 1918

Irena Jurek, born in 1982 in Krakow, is an artist who may put felines in her art and her career is a reason to celebrate Poland's. November 11, 1918 is Poland's independence day, for this is the date of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty. As the Second Polish Republic, Poland ended 123 years of partition by the Russian Empire and other powers on November 11, 1918.

Her blog is generous in praise of other artists. For example she notes;

"There's an alluring sense of nostalgia in Michael...[Dotson's] paintings. Disney has inundated us all with shared, collective childhood memories of characters and events that have never taken place. The past is comforting in its finitude, especially if we have positive associations with it, and it also lacks the chaos and uncertainty of the future. Through nostalgia, we shape the past in order to fit our own desire to idealize and control our memories and perceptions."

And elsewhere she shares her own youthful appreciation of the Garfield comic.

From her CV we learn  she lives and works in Brooklyn, and:

EDUCATION
2008 MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2004 BFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2013 Draw Gym, Know More Games and 247365, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Potluck Show, 187 Jefferson Street, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Thanks, Lu Magnus , New York, NY
2012 Sunday Paintings for a Rainy Day, Field Projects, Chelsea, New York
2012 Itsa small, small world, Family Business, Chelsea, NY
2011 Liminal Step, Nonprofit Finance Fund, NY NY
2011 ^..^, Casita Maria Center for the Arts and Education, Bronx NY
2011 Anti-Curating for Social Change, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn NY
2010 Midnite Snacks, 1366 Space, Chicago IL
2008 Here and Now, Cranbrook Academy Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills MI
2007 Simultaneous Realities, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills MI
2005 Alliance Show, Chicago IL
2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts Graduate Show
2003 240 Minutes Show, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL

CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2013 GeoMetron, co-curated with Talia Shulze, Mulherin+Pollard, New York, NY
2013 Shhhhh... Just let it happen, co-curated with Diana Buckley, Beverly's, New York, NY
2013 Persona, co-curated with Diana Buckley, 7 Dunham, Williamsburg, New York (Forthcoming)
2013 It's Really Normaling, co-curated with Diana Buckley, Greenwich House, New York, New York
2012 Finite Infinity, co-curated with Diana Buckley, Greenwich House, New York, New York
2012 If You Think I'm Sexy, co-curated with Diana Buckley, Gallery 461, New York, New York
2011 Half Empty, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY
2011 In Between the Sheets, Harlem Workspace, New York, New York

AWARDS
2000 The Art Institute of Southern California Merit Scholarship

Here is another work by Irena Jurek and we see her feline interest, her attunement to a comic culture and her humor.

There are lots of cats and her art here, including portrayals like this, titled "Study Buddies" (2016):

The gloss goes:

"In both life and art, what often seems at first to be the epitome of the lecherous wolf, full of machismo, at a closer inspection turns out to be a docile, submissive creature. At other times, the wolf is exactly as he appears, a dominant alpha – a role he was cast to play. The character of the cat woman is an embodiment of a female being that fully embraces her sexual drives and needs. She represents a capricious, violent and untamable form of sexuality." 

And cats.