A fog in the desert Painting

Exhibited: #paintingsamerica, solo show, Gallery r_z / ORz ZPAP, Rzeszow, 2019 When building worlds, Piotr Szczur uses sharp, vivid colors. In his compositions he combines – often on the basis of contrast – saturated reds, turquoises, yellows, and browns. The artist paints with glaze; he applies to the canvas subsequent, translucent layers of paint, thus obtaining the effect of the blurring of reality. On the other hand, he places in this simplified, semitransparent, and vibrantly colorful scenery detailed elements, signs, objects, and buildings that anchor the entire composition in the world of figuration, not allowing the images to drift completely towards abstract art. The reality of the artist's canvases is created based on the contrast between what is real and oneiric, material and fleeting. Thus, describing America becomes for Piotr Szczur a de facto starting point for extremely important, groundbreaking experiments and reflections on the form of the work, which, in an increasingly noticeable way, lead him to abstraction. It seems, however, that this is an instinctive process, though inevitable, and the artist himself surrenders to it, looking at the evolving form of the work from a certain distance. - Marcin Krajewski