‘Gardzienice’ Centre for Theatre Practices
and ‘Gardzienice’ Gallery
are honoured to kindly invite
to the vernissage of the painting exhibition:
Sławomir Toman
“Painterly Statements”
The vernissage will take place on 14 March 2024, (Thursday), at 6 p.m.
in the ‘Gardzienice’ Gallery at 5a Grodzka Street in Lublin
Curator of the exhibition: Zuzanna Zubek-Gańska
Lighting arrangement: Włodzimierz Janowski
Slawomir Toman
Born in 1966. Painter, educator, exhibition curator, judge of art competitions. Studied at the Institute of Artistic Education of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin in the atelier of Professor Mieczysław Herman (1986-87), at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (1988-93, diploma in the atelier of Professor Włodzimierz Kunz) and at the Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, France (1995-97, diploma with honours under the supervision of Professor Gerard Baldet). In 2003, nominated for the Polityka’s Passport Award.
Scholarship holder of the Polish Ministry of Culture (2002) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1995). Since 1997, he has been affiliated with the Institute of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Arts of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (currently a professor at the university). Member of the Open Studio in Kraków and Lublin, the Zachęta Fine Arts Society in Lublin and the Association of Polish Artists. His paintings were presented at individual and collective exhibitions in galleries in Warsaw (CCA Ujazdowski Castle, National Museum, Salon of the Academy, Bardzo Biała, Beta16, Karowa, Farbiarnia, DAP), Poznań (ABC, Piekary, U Jezuitów, InnerSpaces, Szyperska, CK Zamek), Kraków (Otwarta Pracownia, Nova, Pryzmat, Palace of Art, Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, CEP UJ), Tricity (PGS in Sopot, National Museum in Gdańsk, Chlebnicka-ASP), Lublin (Lublin Museum, Zachęta, Biała, BWA, Labirynt, Warsztaty Kultury, Zajezdnia, Pod podłogą), and in many other galleries in Poland and abroad. His works are in institutional and private collections.
PAINTING CONSTATATIONS / Sławomir Toman
Now here is art that gives us an idea of something, pictorially, confusingly resembling the original. In addition, it treats certain contemporary commodities almost with reverence, where the protagonist of the ‘surprise egg’ grows into a model, where simple phrases and elements of our everyday life become a point of reference for the art of …painting by Sławomir Toman.
If one were to try to summarise the last 50 years in the commercial reality of the present world, I believe that these elements would be its symbols, or even something resembling the alphabet of signs with which the present and recent years are expressing themselves.
The form of overly realistic depiction, this breathtaking kind of hyperrealism sprinkled with colours and bold abbreviations of the message, makes the artist’s work an endless, open dialogue between the artist and ourselves.
The value added to the overall exhibition is our references and reflections, the network of associations, abbreviations and juxtapositions we viewers have, based on our own experiences. A painting seen and remembered in this way will alter our thoughts about it over time, which is a kind of universalism that undoubtedly characterises Sławomir Toman’s works.
Let us, in “Gardzienice” Gallery, be carried away by these illusions, veiled issues and the questions they raise; let the dark setting of the gallery make it easier for us to move to the other side of the canvas to better immerse in the analysis of the personas, figures, compositions presented in the paintings.
Zuzanna Zubek – Gańska
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