Kategoria: project

Szwung

Artists: Martyna Czech, Karolina Jabłońska, Tomasz Kręcicki, Cyryl Polaczek

30.06- 22.07.2017

SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY, Berlin

photo: def_images

However diverse the works by the four young Polish artists presented in the show appear to be, they are united by the element of „szwung”. The works on display are all full of verve and temperament. Moreover, all of the paintings are powerful and aim at creating a visceral response from the beholder. The dynamic compositions are created out of many contradictions. Motives, shapes, and forms are strong and expressive; coming from very different realities, they don’t hold back and confront the beholder directly. These young painters do not cut themselves off from the boredom of daily routine and include it in their works, combining and juggling various themes from everyday life or simply grasping for images and stories related to tales, books, or films – without however simply reproducing these on canvas.
Cyryl Polaczek often works with a monochrome background in which he engraves and imprints simple lines and shapes. In his work Zapach [Smell], the artist works with very reduced ways of expression but succeeds, in imbuing the painting with a an element of surrealism: In a thick layer of green paint, Polaczek draws a thin line which forms a nose. Another shape is imprinted and looks like cigarette smoke going directly into a nostril. Or maybe it is not smoke but a mouth in a profile and this smell comes fromsomewhere else, outside of the composition?

Aside from the visual, another aspect brings works by these four Polish artists together. All their works are informed by irony or indeed sarcasm. Their often surrealistic quality makes the works even more disturbing, unsettling, or even annoying.
Certainly, in the case of Tomasz Kręcicki’s paintings, black humour and absurdity play an important role. The narration in the paintings oscillates somewhere between everyday banality and horror. Furthermore, the composition is built up with contrasting elements that do not work together. A good example is the painting Palce [Fingers]. A tiny pencil is held between two huge fingers trying to write something on a small piece of paper. It is as if Gulliver were using Liliput’s writing tools to make some notes.

Karolina Jabłońska and Martyna Czech are not at all ashamed of dealing with very personal and intimate subjects on their canvases. The works by these two female painters are often brutal and bold. There is nothing reticent about their work.
At first glimpse, the paintings by Karolina Jabłońska might seem cute or twee because of their simple, naive forms and eye-catching colours. A closer inspection reveals that they are anything but nice. They are filled with violence and cruel harassment. The artist tells brutal und unpleasant stories involving blood, violence, and abuse. In Plucie [Spitting], the artist depicts the lower halves of two faces of people who seem to argue, or even simply spit at one another. This act is extreme and rude, and for sure there will be no apology afterwards.

Despite her young age, Martyna Czech works with difficult subjects such as violence, suffering, and unhealthy interpersonal relationships. In her paintings, she manages to find a balance between vulgarity and artistic boldness. Her works are difficult to digest, but at the same time they have this strange inherent power which forces us to look at them. The artist is ruthless in expressing her opinion about the world she needs to deal with. In her painting Gówniaki (Shitheads) she mocks a selfie-culture by depicting a youngster posing for a selfie: here, the individual’s eyes have been covered by a black bar and a revolting piece of shit on a stick is held towards the mouth.

The concept of the exhibition at SCHWARZ CONTEMPORARY is based on creating different kinds of tension between the particular works, linking and comparing them with each other. It also directs the viewer’s attention to unusual subjects, such as irony, boldness, directness, and surrealism which appear in the works. Subjects that are not only characteristic for this exhibition but refer to language or ways of communication and expression used by a young generation.

Space as a place

09.07- 18.09.2016
Haus am Lützowplatz

artists: Piotr Blajerski. Olaf Brzeski, Krystian Truth Czaplicki, Łukasz Rusznica, Kama Sokolnicka

photo: Marta Madej

The exhibition „Space as a Place“ presents five young artists from Wroclaw. Although the artists work with different media and represent various artistic milieus, they meet together through the subject of the exhibition. Space, a main theme for the show, is seen by the artists from various perspectives. They show how space relates to universal ideals but also touches on individual and personal experiences.

In the exhibition at Studiogalerie, space can be seen as a space, which is defined by walls, floors, ceilings and certain objects belonging into it. This space, secured and easy to describe, is a place we live and work, and in which we exist and circulate. Works by Krystian Truth Czaplicki take familiar, commonplace objects from their everyday surrounding and changes them into art objects. In the process, they lose their useful value but attract more attention by being rediscovered in a space in which they did not originally belong.

Space can also be created by the abstract, from something which is very difficult to follow, as we see in an installation by Olaf Brzeski. Using a metal wire, the artist traces the flight path of a fly as it flies about. The flight of this small but annoying creature gains a solid form, which becomes even more annoying. An illogical shape hangs in the gallery space, disturbing and dynamic, like a dark cloud of our own thoughts.

In the exhibition, a physical place evolves into abstract space, going beyond a material room and becoming a psychic sphere, reaching our thoughts, imagination and dreams. The works on display by Kama Sokolnicka are drawn from several different series. In one, the artist deals with sleep disorders, lending these form through a black tapestry made out of wool. In another work, the artist translates the process of dreaming into the physical form of collages.

As in a dream in Sokolnicka’s collage elements, forms and fragments from different sources and realities together build a puzzle which can be read on many levels. The artist’s dreams are combined with memories from her childhood and the gardening business of her parents. Several of her works show the motif of a cheerful garden and greenhouses, along with a piece of rusty grate, forgotten and then found in her parents’ house.

A space shifting between two realities is created in a video by Piotr Blajerski. The artist places a narration in two realities: the existing world and the inner world of thoughts. Together, these create a dream-like story, where the behaviours of the people appear absurd and irrational.

The in-between space where the psychic and physical unite, is occupied through photographs by Łukasz Rusznica. In a nocturne-like series, the artist tells a story of his home. It is a home made up of contradictions. While it is a place where his parents live, and supposedly close, emotionally, it is also unfamiliar and strange. The artist never had a chance to live in the house. Given this situation, how could he define this space? What does it mean to him and how does he find himself within it?

Paulina Olszewska

The exhibition was prepared in a context of this year of celebration of Wroclaw as a European Capital of Culture and an exchange between two cities: Berlin and Wroclaw.

24H BRL/LUB

Artists: Michał Bączyński, Wojtek Bońkowski, Jagoda Dukiewicz, Małgorzata Goliszewska, Amanda Korol, Magdalena Sakowska-Carło, Barbara Szczepanik, Ilya Noé (MX)

19. – 20. 12. 2014

GLOGAUAIR BERLIN 

Photo: Marta Marta Madej

Towards the West an exhibition with students from the Academy of Art Szczecin & Ilya Noe as a part of Open Studios event, GlogauAir, Berlin. The exhibition presents a selection of works made by students from Department of Painting and New Media from Szczecin Academy of Art. It is thought as a symbolic journey from Szczecin to the West, to Berlin considered as the artistic and cultural capital nowadays. The paradox of Szczecin is based on its location. On one hand it is easier and quicker to get from there to Berlin, then to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. On the other, for the Warsaw art scene it is too far to the West and for Berlin is still seen as the East. Szczecin, sometimes called ‘the forgotten sister of Berlin’, lies somewhere off the track and remains undiscovered. But it seems like the West is its obvious direction and Berlin gives the source of inspiration and offers a platform for the presentation, confrontation and creating the network.

Who Stole the Tarts?

Artist: Cezary Poniatowski 

15.09 – 28.09.2013

OKAZI GALLERY BERLIN 

Photo: courtesy of Nina Maria Küchler 

In his first solo exhibition in Berlin the Polish artist presents the latest works on paper prepared during his last one-month-visit in the city. In his works Cezary Poniatowski gives a critical comment to the contemporary world, which he finds decadent and uncertain. For this reason he treats his drawing as a response to the visual chaos, which surrounds us and in which we so easily lost ourselves.

The exhibition title comes from the famous „Alice in Wonderland” book but should not be seen as a straight reference to the shown works. It was conceived as an abstract question, which should be left open and indefinite. It lets the recipients create their own interpretation of the works and they are welcome to do so.

A part of The Lange Nacht der Bilder Art Festival

Schere Stein Papier

Artists: Tomasz Baran, Chris Bierl, Nadine Fecht, Edith Kollath, Nina Maria Küchler, Cezary Poniatowski, Dragan Prgomelja, Jana Schumacher, Fran Wunderlich, Erwina Ziomkowska 

7.07 – 28. 08.2014

COLLECTIVA BERLIN

Photo: courtesy of Collectiva, Berlin 

Exhibition Schere Stein Papier (Eng.: Paper, Scissors, Rock) concentrates on matter how contemporary artists deal with the abstraction and the medium of paper. The exhibition oscillates around these two subjects and diverse artistic approaches towards them. Among the artists two different approaches could be recognised. The first one has been created by the artists who have consciously decided to deal with the abstraction, developed in this direction and found their own way of expression. For the others, abstraction is only one of the artistic mediums with which they present their ideas. Paper is an element, which connects all the artists and builds a common field of dialogue. For once, paper as a medium is one of the most popular. Furthermore it requires discipline, creativity and innovation to work with. The artists’ works with these attitudes and within them they reach outside of the limits of this medium and present new ways of the artistic development. Schere Stein Papier exhibition displays works of different artists presented together, despite different approaches towards abstraction and paper. The curatorial concept is based on confrontation, similarities or oppositions and surprises. With a help of such tools the exhibition has made different interpretations possible. Its aesthetic display stimulates recipients to find their own ways of narration. At the same time it presents various ways of understanding contemporary art.

Media patronage: www.obieg.pl, www.berlinerpool.de
Supported by culture.pl

Architecture as Human Nature

Artists: Zoe Andre, Bram Braam, Amir Fatal, Xinglang Guo, Shan Hur, Clara Ianni, Alanna Lawley, Markus Lindfeld, JL Murtaugh, Agata Ruchlewicz-Dzianach, Dominik Stanisławski, Marjan Teeuwen

3.08. – 12.08.2012
SUPERMARKT BERLIN

Coordinated by: Bram Braam, Lena Gericke, Alanna Lawley

The word architecture has developed over time from 2 Greek words: “arché” meaning beginning, origin, source and “téchne” which could be understood as: craftwork as well as art. Somehow these two words lead to an understanding of human nature and the instinct which encourages one to create from an open, infinite space, a contradicted one: one that is closed, secure and a structured system. Instinct persuades human beings to shape their environment and surroundings, at times going to the extremes of creating their own space in order to separate oneself from the outside world. But is that all? What about thinking about architecture in an interdisciplinary context and asking not what architecture actually is, but what else it should be as well?

Architecture as Human Nature explores ways in which contemporary visual artists integrate with, overcome or deconstruct existing architectural forms forms, reaching beyond the traditional approach to architecture.
Bringing together 12 international artists, the exhibition looks at architecture both as a discipline and as a medium of artistic expression and possibility.