PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI – I let it go

The remains of bodies, phalluses, private parts are, at times, nearly abstract entities. Close-ups of skin and of internal and external organs seem like approaching planets. It appears that the artist is an ardent Pantheist; he feels the expanse that divides the human body from Nature so strongly that he turns its parts into cosmic celestial bodies. Yet nothing is cerulean here, but, naturalistically, somewhat rotten-coloured, morphing into the pink tones of human skin, as if bruised by the lividity of internal organs underneath. Paweł Matyszewski carefully puts this cosmic corporeality in a glass-house, a place as safe as it is suffocating. He protects it and highlights its importance. Corporeality burgeons like a plant and exudes the desire to fuse and morph into a variety of forms. At times, we cannot be certain whether we are looking at an anus or at an intestine.

The adjoining room, in turn, does not feel safe at all. Coming into this dark space, we are faced with a toxically purple vapour swirling above a surreal meadow. It lies above the natural terrain covered in rotting greenery, all the way to the horizon. I have an oppressive sense of lost hope and vanished enthusiasm. The burnt-out pillar in the centre is the last companion, a witness to an incident. Rising from clods of earth, it transforms from a chaotic bulbous form into an ordered structure of a vertical rectangle. Its erect angularity irritates my sense of sight, because it aspires to going hand in hand with Nature on the one hand, and on the other it imitates an architecturally rigid form. I have an impression that the tension between these two forms has erased all the options for further development. There is no hope of development here. There is no light. Wanting to extricate oneself from this irresolvable situation, one comes to a door – which is blocked by a confessional. There are no solutions in this reality. I am not even interested if there is anyone on the other side, ready to listen to my sins. I just feel the need to leave immediately. The only way out is to turn back to the entrance by which I came in.

I leave, luckily, and reach the last room, filled by the vast table like a gateau. I feel like catching other people’s hands and standing in a big circle. Yet Matyszewski does not allow me to be carried away by such utopian visions bathed in the heavy aroma of flowers. These flowers are mainly funereal ones and they will surely wither. I feel disappointment and sadness. What is there to be happy about? Still, I am grateful for this gateau which celebrates transience and mainly for the acceptance of it. My heart is trembling, because it is alive and it has not been lied to. I depart with a feeling of a deep assent to the truth and to the diversity and transience of life forms.

Matyszewski’s art reaches the stratum of my being at which I forget about painting and enter the painter’s matrix. Under the pretext of the aesthetics of the abstract, he conveys his elemental affirmation of diversity as the only true order by which the world is structured.

Magdalena Starska
 

Paweł Matyszewski
 

Born 1984, Bialystok, Poland. 
Graduated in 2009 from painting, Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland. 
 

solo exhibitions
 

Body, Go Away, Piekary Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2015
Borderland, Bardzo Bala Gallery, Warsaw, PL, 2015
Another Day, Centre of Creative Activities in Ustka, 2014
fears, Piekary Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2011
Species, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL, 2011
Leucospermum (diploma), Starter Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2009
Lysichiton, Enter Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2008
 

group exhibitions
 

42 Biennale of painting Bielska Jesień, Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2015
The Power of Abstraction, Museum of Modern Fine Arts in Minsk, BY, 2015
Fish Eye, Young Art Biennial 8, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Słupsk, PL, 2015
Gardens, Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, PL, 2015 
(Don’t) Touch! Haptic Aspects of Polish Art After 1945, CSW Toruń, PL, 2015
O włos!, Zamek Culture Centre in Poznan, PL, 2015
Relation to Nature, Warsaw, PL, 2014
Delayed But on Time, Rekursja Gallery, Poznań, 2014
L.O.V.E. Colony of Artists, Gdańsk, PL, 2014
Painting Biennial Bielska Jesień, Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2013
Fish Eye, Young Art Biennial 7, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Słupsk, PL, 2013
Perfectionists, Skwer / Fabryka Trzciny Art Center , Warsaw, PL, 2013
Point without I, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL, 2013
The Ninth Circle of Obsession, Tartu Art House, EE, 2013
Things and People, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL, 2013
Collection Art Gallery BWA Bielsko – latest acquisitions, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2012
Obsession, Contemporary Art Gallery, Zrenjanin, RS, 2012
Aura, Biala Gallery, Lublin, PL, 2012
Norm, temporary object in The Park of Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, PL, 2012
Draught III Young Art Festival, Szczecin, PL, 2011
Biennale of painting Bielska Jesień, Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2011
10th Geppert Competition – What does a painter do? BWA Awangarda Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 2011
Salted Candy, Poznańska Galeria Nowa, Poznan, PL, 2011
Inside, State Ethnographical Museum, Warsaw, PL, 2011
The Public Sphere / Contexts, Profil Gallery, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznan, PL, 2010
50 Paintings, Bielska Gallery BWA , Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2010
Promocje 2010, The Gallery of Art in Legnica, PL, 2010
Very Good Paintings, Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2010
Ars Homo Erotica, National Museum in Warsaw, PL, 2010
Protoplazma, Old Power Station, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL, 2010
End 3, End Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2009
Biennale of painting Bielska Jesień, Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala, PL, 2009
Figurama, Prague, Brno, Brussels, CZ, BE, 2009
Summer Love, Enter Gallery + ON Gallery, Poznan, PL, 2008
 

competitions and grants
 

Fish Eye 8, Young Art Biennial, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, 2nd prize, 2015
Grand Młoda Polska, National Centre for Culture , 2014
Fish Eye 7, Young Art Biennial, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Award in the form of solo exhibition, 2013
Modessqe, 1st International Painting Contest, Grand Prix, 2013
Nominated for Three’s Talents, Polish Radio Program III, 2012 
Grand of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2012 
Biennale of Painting Bielska Jesień, 2nd prize, 2011
Public Space – Contexts, Zamek Culture Centre, Poznan, 2nd prize, 2010 
Promotions 2010, The Gallery of Art in Legnica, 3rd prize, 2010
Mayor of Białystok grant, Complications project, 2010
Biennale of Painting Bielska Jesień, 3rd prize, 2009

http://www.pawelmatyszewski.com/CV
 

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