exhibition: October 4th – November 11th,
organizator:
partner:
place: Galeria Piekary
ul. Św. Marcin 80/82
CK Zamek, Dziedziniec Różany
61-809 Poznań
exhibition open Monday – Friday 10 AM – 6 PM
admission always free
media patronage:
9/11 Art Space Foundation and Piekary Gallery are pleased to invite you to the exhibition Jakub Czyszczoń. Spleen.
“What colour is black bile? The second part of the name does not denote colour, but the type of secretion. Associations with it are inevitable. However, we are not exactly sure which fluid was meant. Perhaps it was the blood that flows from the spleen. It is darker than the blood that comes out elsewhere. It flows to the liver, which most likely prompted the association with bile. For the ancients, that particular fluid became the foundation of the mythology of melancholy and decadence. Its excess was supposed to be responsible for Saturnine temper.
Choosing Spleen as the title of his exhibition, Jakub Czyszczoń delves precisely into this primordial baggage of meanings, which derives directly from the function and structure of the spleen. The notions associated with the melancholic temperament also include earth and autumn, which seem to share a particular affinity with the works that make up Spleen. This is evinced in their colouring, which relies on cinnabar. This pigment may come from two sources. One is the stone of the same name, which owes its colour to mercuric sulphide. Originally, however, it was obtained was by breeding cochineal insects, whose dried bodies served to produce the red pigment. Their Latin name, Kermes vermilio, gave rise to the English vermilion. And thus we returned to the subject of body fluids.
One of the phases of imbalance between the humour substances was apóstasis, or the accumulation of excess matter in one place and its separation from its surroundings. The word apostasy is also etymologically related to that concept. Apóstasis means departure, but also a bulge or protuberance. Several of Czyszczoń’s new works introduce precisely such a tension between surface and depth. Fragments of branches are introduced under the canvas and the rippling that occurs on the surface becomes the subject. This is not a new motif in the artist’s oeuvre: the focus on what it conceals has always been at the centre of his interest. Here, however, that trend is radicalized. It also manifests itself elsewhere, albeit in more subtle ways. Fragments of clothing make a return, becoming elements of the composition. The flatness underscores the cartographic qualities of the composition. What would normally cover a spatial object is transformed into a two-dimensional map of corporeal territories. Still, it manages to betray the symptoms of what separates itself beneath the surface, and what might produce protrusion and apostasy: something that was originally black but has been stroked with yellow pigment or vice versa.”
Daniel Muzyczuk
Jakub Czyszczoń is a visual artist, author of paintings, installations and objects, engaging with the broadly understood image. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań in 2008. Currently a student of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Studies at the University of Arts in Poznań, with a degree of Doctor of Fine Arts obtained in 2020. Recipient of scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the “Młoda Polska” programme (2018), resident of the 18th Street Art Centre in California (2012-2013) and recipient of fellowship from the Visegrad Fund. The artist participated e.g. in the post-competition exhibition of the 9th Eugeniusz Geppert Painting Competition in Wrocław and Łódź (2009). Together with Prof. Wojciech Łazarczyk, Czyszczoń co-heads the Third Studio of Painting and Post-Media Practices at the Faculty of Painting, Academy of Art in Szczecin.
Selected solo and collective exhibitions: Regaining Sensation (Jakub Czyszczoń, Thea Gvetadze, Gizela Mickiewicz, Ser Serpas) Stereo Gallery, Warsaw, 2024. The Surface is Enough, with the Budapeszt group, Swallow, Vilnius, 2023. Clavicle, Ermes-Ermes, Rome, 2022/2023. Side Effects, with Tilde Greene, Stereo Gallery, Warsaw, 2022. Confines, with Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili, JUNE, Berlin, 2022. Mondo Cane. Jak obsługiwać świat, the National Museum in Szczecin, 2023 (collective show). Minimo uno. Massimo due, East Contemporary Gallery, Milan, 2022 (collective show). COLLECTIVA #1, Monitor Gallery, Palazzo Maccafani, Pereto 2022 (collective show). Pocket Knife Instead of The Alphabet, Stereo Gallery, Warsaw, 2020/2021. Volume of Effort (3), Skala Gallery in Poznań, 2020. Late echo, Stereo Gallery, Warsaw, 2018. Solo presentation at the LISTE in Basel and NADA in New York City, 2018. Company for Silence, Project at Fifteen, Tel Aviv, 2018. Co z tą abstrakcją? —Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw, 2017 (collective show). Micrograms, Ermes-Ermes Gallery, Rome, 2017. Is the room full of smoke?,Stereo Gallery, Warsaw, 2017. Mocne stąpanie po ziemi — BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art in Katowice , 2015 (collective show). Czysta formalność, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, 2015 (collective show). Oko chce spać ale głowa to nie materac, BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art in Katowice. 2015
Project co-financed by the City of Poznań
