She studied at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (now the Academy of Fine Arts). She obtained her diploma in the atelier of Professor Kazimierz Ostrowski. She took an additional specialisation, ceramics, with Professor Hanna Żuławska. She has been passionate about theatre for a long time. During her studies, she worked at the student Theatre Ą and the Humbug Theatre, then at the Baltic Opera and Philharmonic, learning the secrets of theatre techniques. After her studies, she began working with the Miniatura Puppet and Actor Theatre in Gdansk and the Olsztyn Puppet Theatre, designing sets and puppets for them.

Since 1985, the artist has lived in Canada, in Toronto. She has established collaborations with Lampoon Puppet Theatre, Jewish Art Productions, Dragon's Time Productions, Ontario Puppetry Association, and Festive Earth Society, for which she creates sets, puppets, installations and conducts art workshops. In the 1990s, the artist became involved in the exhibition life of Canada, presenting her work at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, Toronto City Hall, Mel Lastman Square, Pickering Shopping Centre, Toronto Convention Centre, Koffler Centre for the Arts, PEKAO Gallery, among others. Dabrowska was a member of the Ontario Puppetry Association.

Since 1994, the artist has been associated with the Maria Nowotarska Salon of Poetry, Music and Theatre, for which she has created sets, costumes and posters for over thirty performances. She also collaborates with Michał Kuleczka's Musical Theatre, Margaret Maye's Bravo International, Mirek Polatyński's ATLAS Stage Productions Canada. The artist paints, sculpts, creates art installations, and works in printmaking, but her passion is puppets-small sculptures.

In the process of creating each doll, the artist combines many techniques and a variety of materials - metal, wood, textiles, painting media and ceramics. Joanna Dąbrowska's doll-sculptures are internal, presumed portraits of randomly met people whom the artist 'peeps' at in everyday life. "Building" a doll, the artist feels like a demiurge creating a new unique being with human emotions. Each doll is different, there are only individual pieces, which the artist spends between one and two months creating.

The puppet-sculptures are white, in white clothes, as the artist wants the puppets to be symbolically neutral, devoid of colour, to allow the viewer a subjective interpretation. The white makes them unearthly beings living in their mysterious world of children's games, theatre or daydreams. Joanna Dąbrowska's puppet-sculptures are mesmerising with their large eyes and disturbing at the same time with their sharp features and serious facial expressions. The artist believes that they bring happiness.

Work in the catalogue
Joanna Dąbrowska, 'Papagina' doll, 2012, height 60 cm, mied media.