On March 30 the gal­lery will be closed



The works of Rafał Buj­now­ski con­tinually engage in a dialogue with the fun­damen­tal proper­ties of pain­ting. The artist is interested in what pain­tings are essen­tially for, how they func­tion in architec­tural and social space, but also the manner of their creation. These con­siderations have led him to radical solutions and far-​reaching formal restraint. The phenomenon of his pain­ting con­sists in the con­stant balan­cing between represen­tation and the illusion of represen­tation. The pain­ting process, often purely mechanical, leads to sur­prising results and laun­ches another, sym­metrical, process of reading the com­pleted pain­ting, which depends on the variable ligh­ting, distance, and the involvement of the viewer.

 

The motif of the human figure returns in Bujnowski’s latest works, and the minimalism of the pain­terly means is used this time for a rather existen­tial reflec­tion. The ink com­positions from the title series Man on Tree are a metaphor of entan­glement, but also of a peculiar asylum and con­ceal­ment, all depic­ted with the sim­plest artistic means. Similarly, Can­dles have an ambiguous nature—brilliant studies of smoke drifting over an extin­guished wick, made with a single stroke of the brush. These works reveal a con­tem­plative poten­tial and a sym­bolism not seen before in Bujnowski.

After many years, the pain­ter also tries an entirely dif­ferent range of hues. The series of tondos Dan­delions offers a colouristic and ener­getic coun­ter­balance to the other works. At the same time, in Bujnowski’s signature manner, the pain­tings cap­ture a glim­mering state of momen­tary rap­ture, a flash of light and emotion. As with the ethereal image of drifting smoke or the figure disap­pearing among the bran­ches, here too the lapidary motif conveys meta-​painting con­tent. The legible traces of the brush are not only a record of the process of con­struc­ting the pain­ting, but also a documen­tation of pain­terly meditation in the quest for the most accurate and tel­ling gesture—a fun­damen­tal mark of inter­per­sonal communication.


Warsaw Gal­lery week­end 2016

Rafał Bujnowski
MAN ON TREE

23.09-12.11.2016

Opening on Friday, September 24, 5-9PM

 

During Warsaw Gallery Weekend (September 24-25) the gallery will be also open 12-7PM.

 

Take a 3D tour of the show.



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