"Relief z Palenque" ( 730 Painting) Print

In different light Krzysztof Pająk says that he is a collector by nature. He once collected stamps and butterflies, and he'd like to accumulate precious minerals and surround himself with exotic fish in aquaria. But at heart, Pająk is a collector of ornamental and coloristic nuances. This is why he's so attracted to the organic world, where certain repeating elements, such as the wings of a butterfly or the spindle-shaped body of a fish, acquire an infinite number of varying shapes and colors. When viewing Pająk's work for the first time, you are struck above all by the refined artistic interplay – the decorativeness of the multiplied, ornamental forms filling his works. His painting, with its characteristic abhorrence of empty space, its thickening conglomeration of signs and marks resonating in pure, vivid color, approaches the boundary of abstraction yet doesn't cross it. Pająk is intrigued by primitive and ancient art, with its archetypal content and ornaments close to ideographs. He's fascinated by Lascaux cave art, aboriginal painting, Islamic art, ancient Egypt. He finds in them an archaic rhythm of forms, a purity of primordial meaning. In his art, Pająk avails himself of traditional mythological and biblical motifs ("Temptation of St Anthony", 1994, "The Last Supper", 1994), yet also draws inspiration from contemporary art. In the 1980s and 1990s he painted enigmatic, shimmering, nighttime cityscapes from a bird's eye view portraying the gargantuan metropolises that symbolize our civilization. "Art for me is putting the chaos of the world surrounding us into order," the artist says. "I want to reveal the depth, the refined simplicity and harmony, beneath what is considered decorative superficiality. I understand 'decorum' to be 'properness', as the concept was once understood." The current exhibit was built around the "monoliths-towers" series, which Pająk has been working on since the 1990s. The nine straight vertical forms carved out of wood bring to mind totem poles of some unknown primitive tribe. They have been entirely painted with pure colors straight from the tube, some of which are fluorescent acrylics, so that these works (and all the others presented at this exhibit) can be viewed in ultraviolet light. According to the painter, the "electronic" hue thus obtained corresponds well with the aesthetic sensibility of our times. The effect is truly uncanny. In the dark gallery interior you view art that looks as if it had been transported from another galaxy – the cold, bluish afterglow makes you think of distant civilizations. Pająk's baffling "totem poles" could also bring to mind some sort of secret electronic apparatus, or prehistoric rock paintings, or tribal cultures that have survived somewhere on the periphery of the contemporary world. With the poetic symbolism characteristic of his painting, Krzysztof Pająk bridges the opposite poles of sci-fi art, graffiti and pop-art on the one hand, and the magical primeval expression of African and Oceanic cultures on the other. Kinga Kawalerowicz A cool visual palette syntehetic drawing,compact and considered composition are the source of a stress as well as elements limitting a surface of Pająk's picture. His abstractions, that reconcile painting structure with a transitoriness of emotions puzzle and alarm. By means of a fine net of almost graphic lines and a mosaic of colour patches composing soulful, saturated with metallic elements matter the artist tries to sublime some archetypes of a reality outside our control rather than reproduce the world we use to live in. The canvas emanate a mimetic beauty interpretated by a special manner falling under "sublime" category that is a serious, full of feelings nobliness. Jarosław M.Daszkiewicz Arsenał 88 krytyk sztuki

Print:Giclee on Canvas

Size:20 W x 16 H x 1.25 D in

Size with Frame:21.75 W x 17.75 H x 1.25 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.