Pawel MATYSZEWSKI (b. 1984), Complications 2, 2009

Own technique, canvas; 65 x 61 cm;
signed, dated and described on the reverse: PAWEŁ MATYSZEWSKI 2009 / COMPLICATIONS 2
Work exhibited at the exhibition: Bojaźnie, Piekary Gallery, Poznań, February 4 - 28, 2011.

Painter, author of objects and installations. He grew up in Podlasie, where he lives and works. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting, University of Arts in Poznań, diploma in 2009. Since 2014, student of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Multimedia Communication, University of Arts in Poznań.
Works presented in many national and international exhibitions (such as Self Love. Czyli artyści kochają siebie, State Art Gallery, Sopot, 2014; Things and People, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, 2013, Obsession, Tartu Art House, Estonia, 2013; Ars Homo Erotica, National Museum in Warsaw, 2010. Scholarship holder of the National Cultural Center (2014) and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2012). He deals extensively with the marginality of phenomena and behavior on the border of culture and biology. He combines the language of realism with abstraction, image with object.

''One does not know when there is an end and when there is a beginning; what to focus on? How long continuity, what substitutability? The boundary unclear. What emotion to endow it with? Full of cold ambivalence. I don't know if I fear the tragedy, or if I somewhat look forward to it.''
(Pawel Matyszewski)

"His phenomenon lies in his unusual approach to painting, as Matyszewski's primary medium is painting, although he also creates objects. He shuffles genres and conventions, his paintings can be referred to both photography and handicrafts, some of his works can be considered more like objects than paintings in the traditional sense. This is because on their surface one can find convexities, concavities, and sometimes matter coming from a completely different area than the pictorial order (for example, human hair). Because of this, these images become extremely haptic, provoking one to touch them, to stroke them. Yet they are subtle, minimalist and almost abstract. But they evoke emotions and do not allow indifference. This is due to the fact that many of his canvases resemble human skin: with tattoos, scars, injuries, bruises, veins drawing under the skin, worn or damaged epidermis. The story the artist depicts is a story directly
reflected on the body. Unique is the varied colors of these canvases and their abjectness (it seems that we are actually dealing with the human body!). In this way, the artist crosses the boundaries between the pictorial and real (bodily) order. (...) The corporeality of these paintings simultaneously attracts and repels, the unusual patterns painted on the canvas/body fascinate, while the clearly marked wounding, the degradation of the bodily tissue sometimes gone so far that it seems already dead, scares. At the same time, the artistic statement
Matyszewski is very personal, intimate. The paintings speak of injuries, fears, pain, but also hope. (...) One can say that emotions and feelings are hidden under the skin here."
(Izabela Kowalczyk)