RAFAŁ BUJNOWSKI. Dusk

Rafał Bujnowski. Dusk

Rafał Bujnowski is one of the most radical contemporary Polish painters, constantly expanding the medium of painting. In his work a sophisticated relation between painting technique and theme can be observed. For more than ten years, the artist has been developing the concept of black painting, which has received the most powerful articulation in the Lamp black cycle, nocturnal landscapes and the Arsonists series.

One of Bujnowski’s works displayed at the exhibition staged by the Arsenal Gallery is Zug, St. Michael (2004) from the collection of the Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych [Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Podlasie], consisting of two parts – a video and a black canvas. A view of Zug, a Swiss town, with the tower of St Michael’s Church is methodically painted over by Bujnowski and disappears under consecutive layers of black paint to be reborn in the film showing the progress of the artist’s work. The final result of the whole process, and its main focus, is the canvas. It is one of the artist’s works in which the idea of black painting gradually crystallized. This special diptych is not, however, the central point of the exhibition but a link with the artist’s latest pieces presented at the Arsenal Gallery – two large-format landscapes on canvas and a series of lamps painted black.

Rafał Bujnowski, b. 1974 in Wadowice. He studied at the Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology (1993–1995) and the Faculty of Graphic Arts, Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (1995–2000). The artist lives and works in Cracow. Selected recent individual exhibition include The Drunkard’s Dog (with Oskar Dawicki), Gdańska Galeria Miejska 2 (2014); Arsonists, Raster, Warsaw, (2013); Neuer Kunstverein (with Michał Budny), Vienna; Corner, Johnen Galerie, Berlin; Panorama, Galeria BWA, Zielona Góra (2011); Eye Sockets, Raster, Warsaw; Rafał Bujnowski (with Ray Bartkus), Galerija Vartai, Vilnius (2010); 85%, Raster, Warsaw; IBID Projects, London (2008). The artist participated in several group exhibitions at the Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, including Relax (2001), Things and People (2013) as well as numerous presentations of the collection of the Arsenal Gallery and the Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych.
 

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