B L I N K E R E D

[having or showing a narrow or limited outlook]

Blinkered is a section of the world seen through a photographic lens and translated into the language of abstract painting by Łukasz Olek. The photographic way of presenting, based on compositional sharpness and precision and accompanied with painterly spontaneity, is an original record of reality that balances at the interface of painting and photography.

The presented works are abstract landscapes. The heterogeneous, but at the same time distinctive scrap of space has been narrowed down to just a few pixels, and then magnified to a large-format image. The figurative is therefore reduced to its basic and most crucial formal essence. Painting, unlike photography, gives viewers the opportunity to observe the creative process, which intentionally initiates a form of dialogue. Here, we can see large-format canvases painted over several or dozen times, with wide strips of cool and intense colourswith rough and ragged edges. The alternate use of glaze and impasto reveals the following layers of the image going as far deep as its foundation. The great care with which paints are applied to obtain spatial effects in the texture of the background brings out inhomogeneous, albeit intense light, which further emphasizes their vibrating colouristics.

However, these subtle dissolving forms are often violently eclipsed with aggressive visual effects, such as the application of a thick layer of paint with a knife, wiping or gouging. Application of these technical measures allows the viewers to engage in aesthetic vivisection of the work and invites them to inspect the hidden details on the surface. It has the effect of dualistic perception where large-format images draw the attention as close to the detail as possible. The craftmanship follows the power of careful observation. The artist extracts selected elements from a scrap of reality and subjects them to deconstruction by playing with basic formal values such as size, colour or structure. The resulting works entice the viewer with their aesthetics and induce a state of visual contemplation.

I invite you to enter this world. Maja Tyborska, curator.