Shame before the repetition | Bartosz Kokosiński

ARTIST

Bartosz Kokosiński

DURATION

2007-02-23 – 2007-03-22
Vernissage February 23, 2007 (Friday) 18.00
The exhibition lasts until March 22, 2007
Nova Gallery ul. Józefa 22 (entrance from Nowa street)

ABOUT EXHIBITION

The first individual exhibition of works by Bartek Kokosiński is entitled “Shame before the repetition”. The substantive exhibition plan allows to divide it into three conventional conceptual blocks: a triple self-portrait; a series of black and white portraits supplemented with drawings; double paintings, dubbed “painterly painting” and solo works that constitute complementary accents. Such a selection of works, made by the artist, allows to fully read and understand the spectrum of actions taken so far.

In his work, Kokosiński turns to painting form and technique as separate and essential elements of the whole work of art. Technical aspects become the dominant, and formal interpretation is the key to getting to know the character of the artist’s work.

In Kokosiński’s actions one can read the pursuit of the concept of form by restoring its meaning, understood as the essence of painting. Starting from the typical, seemingly neutral academic performances (portrait, self-portrait), the creator constructs the work drawing on the technical achievements of other artists. The works created in this way, however, are not a pure compilation, the most important part of the creative process is innovation and experiment.
The technical inspirations are particularly important in the cycle of three self-portraits. Seemingly identical, they arise from completely different reasons and fascinations. When painting, the artist relies on assumptions based on the theories or formal solutions of Leonardo da Vinci, Ada Reinhardt and Agata Bogacka. These sources are at the same time the basis of the idea for the image are marked in the titles of the works and in the theoretical description of creativity.

Another formal play is revealed in black and white portraits. This series is the result of a bipolar project, where Kokosiński presents his family and friends, and the models portray the artist. The whole undertaking is subject to technical limitations imposed by the author. As a result of such a procedure, two types of performances are created. Unified in the colors, dimensions and manner of the presentation of the artist’s work, and the images of Kokosiński contrasted with them, which despite a single “theme” are completely different, as well as their creators.

“(…) This is a deliberate action that affects people’s (human) mood fluctuations or physical disabilities. Visually more easily visible displacements in space. What criteria have the people portraying me, let it remain a puzzle that stimulates our imagination. The more so because the works that would seem to be similar to each other, are more distant than mine, showing so different personalities. ”

The latest works by Kokosiński, dubbed “disease of painting”, are painting duets. The artist adapts diseases that torment representatives of the human species to the soil of the canvas. It shows the time before or after the disease, and completes the image during the illness. Visualization of psoriasis by the falling paint, or growth as a bubble of air in the layers that cover the image, are technical treatments that allow the author to explore the possibilities hidden in the craft of painting.

“(…) motive in the works becomes invalid, its place is occupied by the structure (…) for me it is more action, fun (…)”
Kokosiński does not close himself in rigid frames and thought patterns. Through his works and reflections on them, he opens up a wide range of topics of discussion from the present role of form and technique in art, through the state of painting itself, limitations, authorities in art, to the academic system of understanding creativity contrasted with contemporary consumerism and popularity.

“Shame before the repetition” exhibited in the NOVA gallery, is in fact a courage to resume the issues of form and technique neglected in the present painting.