Subjects | Przemysław Przegon

Artist

Przemysław Przegon

ABOUT EXHIBITION

Przemysław Przegon is a debuting artist who in his works moves around the area of non-representing sculpture. Because of the regressable sculpture in Polish art that can be observed, this is a remarkable action. He himself describes himself as an almost-traditionalist, as he deals with “dead matter closed in its three dimensions”. His works are characterized by the release of imagination and the free act of creating new visual forms, unrelated to the images offered by the actual material culture, characteristic of abstraction sculptures. You can, however, find inspiration in them with some elements of forms present in nature, but this is not about “tasteless imitation”.
Most often these are geometric multi-faceted systems that are composed of separate elements. In some of the sculptures, however, one can notice a tendency to “sink” at different angles, which visually deprives them of stability. “I value harmony and balance, but at the same time contrasts and physical or unnatural denials,” says the artist. Other sculptures, in turn, emphasize their lightness with a frame, closed form, which makes the works independent of the pedestal, which at the same time still exposes them. The main goal here is to focus on the contemplation of the object, its research and reflection aimed at directing the recipient to new areas of feeling, or perhaps compassion. Significant here is the aspect of the independent creative force of the subject, which affects both the creator and the audience, thus losing the area of human power over the existing world, even the inanimate one. However, the artist himself does not forget about the interference of the author deciding on the character of the work. In order not to limit the recipients in any way, the works have not been named, and the exhibition presented in the gallery is simply a series of paper sculptures that have been created during the last year.
The contemplative nature of Przemyslaw Przegon’s sculptures also accentuates the similarity to Japanese aesthetics, fanciful but pure forms, black and white colors or even the material from which “objects” have been made – paper, which in turn can remind us of origami fun. At the same time, paper sculptures are a denial of what one would expect from this artistic area. The small format of the works is supposed to bring them closer to the human being, make them remind him of “useful objects without a specific function”. In addition, the creature from which they were made is a symbol of impermanence, transitoriness of the material. It is a specific retreat from monumental sculpture – a sculpture made of paper requires a lot of attention and constant care. A work of art ceased to be something different from us here, its duration has been equated with human existence. Both are equally fragile and transient, one would like to say – cheap as paper, and at the same time unique. “Why would artistic work and work be more important than a human being?” Comments the artist, placing one’s priorities in the co-existence of the work with the recipient, trying to “domesticate” the artistic object, making art enter gray reality in its unreal form. At the same time, its economical form comes out against the consumer’s everyday everyday life, which requires more and more stimulus, colors, events and surprises. It is supposed to be “small ABC of new forms that could be used to create a new reality”.
The artist himself declares himself an ardent supporter of the pure form of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, the liberation of form from responsibility, which together with the aura of concentration and contemplation is a kind of artistic meditation, a desire for complete freedom and something supernumerary. The ability to look at the form with other eyes is of fundamental importance to him in art. At the same time, however, he refrains from inspiring modernist aesthetics, because, as he claims, his goal is not to simplify geometric forms. In this case, we can rather talk about an attempt to define a new concept of sculpture as something accessible to human feeling, a co-participant of our everyday life. Pure form can be a gesture of invitation to creative reception of the work, and the mere naming of abstract sculptures with “objects” deprives them of their unreal character.

The exhibition at Galeria Nova is the first presentation of the artist’s works.

Przemysław Przegon (born on December 27, 1984)
He graduated from the State High School of Visual Arts in Zamość, currently at the 5th year of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, and the sculpture department.