“I emerged from autism through art” — this is how Dominika Mendel defines her condition, her identity, and her life. This phrase also became the title of the retrospective exhibition focusing on her work from 1990–2013. The final paintings were created in 2013, the year in which the artist announced that she had “emerged from autism”. Her last works were a series of thirty images of saints (Świątków) created for the Teatroterapia production Confession in Wood (Spowiedź w drewnie), executed in acrylics, pastels, and oil paints.

Dominika Mendel’s biography is of particular interest due to her autism, diagnosed at an early stage of her schooling. She was the first child to attract the attention of both researchers from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (UMCS) and recognised figures from the art world, including Wiktor Zin. For many years she did not speak, communicating with her surroundings through drawings. She “recorded” sequences of images across hundreds of notebooks — small, detailed drawings narrating people, children, events, surrounding dramas, as well as rare and joyful encounters, such as visits to a school theatre, the zoo, or moments observed in the street. These notebooks form an integral part of the exhibition.

She painted, drew, and “wrote” rapidly and prolifically, creating narratives that were easily understood by others, eliciting both admiration and curiosity. For one year, as part of an experiment conducted by Maria P. Budzyńska, she studied graphic art at the Faculty of Arts at UMCS. She soon abandoned the programme, however, having surpassed her fellow students with her extraordinary talent — and, quite simply, having become bored.

Dominika Mendel also performed in the Teatroterapia production Dell’arte dla…, playing herself — the painter. During the hour-long performance, she was able to produce up to twenty portraits of audience members or successive theatrical scenes live on stage. Her mother, Anna, appearing as her squire, sold — in accordance with the script — beautiful pastel works, eagerly purchased by the audience to great acclaim. Dominika Mendel’s work directly inspired the establishment of the Art Brut Gallery at the Centre for Culture in Lublin. She is regarded as the gallery’s “godmother”, which is run by the Teatroterapia Lubelska Foundation.