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Mariusz Lukasik
Mariusz Lukasik - returning from Krakow 2005
The art of doing is seeing what materials no longer just image, but can reveal by peeling off layer after layer of copies made from the same concept of art. That has been the case throughout man's history.
The unusual art works of Mariusz Lukasik may stem from a unique blindness, so that darkness meets in a most penetrating way light. Both relate to the other field of experience quite differently. The one resists while the other seeks to penetrate. It is a struggle until the explosion happens. This secret illumination is like a meteor flashing through the universe at night.
Bedrock like thinking lies behind it as if not the eyes but the earth follows the path the light takes, and accordingly contours emerge. If not man's hands made out of clay that other image of himself, it remains to be seen who is afraid of not only Virginia Wolf, but of the nude. Duchamp made that aesthetical statement but fear of love is still as real as is the beauty of a woman when seen as she is. No formal restrictions pertain to such wonder. It is also what catches the eye of the man but if the glance is masculine and the object femine, it may also be just the reverse once the anthropocentric reference is erased by a sweep of the paint brush. Then a ash like background will do. Fallen have all curtains, and no more words need to be spoken. For all has been said before the turn around begins. Out of this spins life born to be free as if the vitality of the artist begins to take shape apparent from what can be called the life of a family once that transition has been made. Till then the moon light shines upon this figure and the threshold can be equally the board below the window and on which rest at times not birds, but elbows when just looking out.
Warszawa 1981 Mariusz Lukasik
This little painting on a piece of wood was a gift by the painter Mariusz Lukasik after we had arrived with two trucks to bring food, medicine and clothes to the people in Warszawa after marshall law had been declared. That was in the cold winter month of January 1981.
By that time Mariusz Lukasik had already exhibited in the KWARZ gallery in Berlin West in 1978. It was a collective of artist and included Jürgen Hofmann. Thanks to him a new connection was made to West Germany for he came from Hof. There Mariusz Lukasik was invited by Ms. Petris to show his etchings at her gallery. In turn it brought about contact with Nuernberg and the owners of the Faber Castell factory. They announced soon thereafter interest in providing the city with a unique scholarship for an artist to stay over a period of time in residence, and it should not be a writer, but preferable one closely linked to drawing. Mariusz Lukasik became the first artist to receive this scholarship.
Growing up in Praga and Warszawa
The amazing story of Mariusz is that he was several times nearly blind in his childhood. He grew up in that special area of Warszawa called Praga. It was always a down ridden area with dark court yards and dripping water from the walls. Today it houses some cultural factories and artists like to find refuge there as the local people still have a sense of identity which seems to have been lost in other areas of Warszawa due to the destruction in Second World War, in the periods under Socialism and finally after having entered the new era of European consumerism. An emblem of the Stalin period is the cultural centre in midst of down town of Warszawa.
Cultural Centre in Warszawa
Praga lies across the river and there people would arrive from the countrysite to sell their farm products but never enter further the city. It meant for many years people lived in absolute poverty. A family of six could easily share one room.
Most telling about life in that quarter is an etching Mariusz did of a man sitting in a cellar and fixing the wheel of a bicycle. Since the man seems to wear something like a Turban, a most strange piece of clothing in such a setting, it can be easily imaged that there sits all of sudden Sinbad, the sea adventurer. How he ended up in a cellar in Warszawa may remain a mystery, but he must have travelled with the imagination to look for a new place to settle down. And since he had to abandon his Arabic place, such a cellar as most unusual places did not appear to be that unusual. But what could inspire Mariusz Lukasik to take up such a motive?
Image of his work send for New Years 31.12.2010
When beginning to wonder and to talk about his style of painting, there is a rhythm in whatever he does. Usually he plays some fine music, mainly good Jazz, when working on something. In retrospect and from an overview his drawings seem to emerge out of the years immediately after he attended the Warszawa Art Academy where he did a lot of etching. He then developed a kind of drawing which went over to painting but by using collage like ideas, he dealt in a fine and finite way with color in contrast to the black and white array in etchings. As in any case of an artist, conditions change but affect equally his way of working. Thus he would say his paintings are much more like archaeological layers. For he would paint over previous paintings due to a lack of space, canvas and materials. That means his opus extends but goes as well very deep.
The collage idea along with hidden layers reflects what he likes in old houses when tapestries come off and reveal hidden dimensions of time. That was the case when houses were renovated in Berlin Kreuzberg where Mariusz stayed for some time. He discovered then newspapers dating back to 1933. For someone coming from Poland it had a startling effect.
He also liked to collect items in the streets like old window frames once scratched would again reveal different layers of paint. He would not scratch them off uniformly and leave different layers to continue to exist side by side. The temporal is his way of measuring time. It is another way for him to say what is complete and what changes by itself over time as history goes past to leave but a few traces that here human beings lived, conversed and attempted to make sense of out of their lives.
His philosophy attempts to remain humble. He knews a few things and does not go astray from this in the way he moves about, sometimes quietly, sometimes jumping up to touch a branch and yet always carefully listening to what is being said. He is an artist in tune with the world even though the images he conjures up, they do remind many people of Hieronymus Bosch depicting a world of insanity rather than sanity.
All of his pictures are not easy to take, but they have the capacity to move people very deeply and they stay with you once you have become a friend with them. As a matter of fact, they stay with you as no other loyal friend would. That reveals also the philosophy of Mariusz and which is behind his work of art, for it is easy to make friends, but hard to keep them.
HF 31.12.2010 (updated 19.12.2012)
Mariusz Lukasik studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Department of Graphic Art in the studios of the Professors Andrzej Rudziński (graphic art) and Jerzy Tchórzewski (painting and drawing). In the 1980 International Drawing Competition in Nuremberg, he won the main prize and the title of the draughtsman of the city of Nuremberg. In 1983-4, he held a grant from the government of the Netherlands. In 1984-5, he studied at the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. As a matter of principle, he does not take part in group exhibitions. His participation in the Biennale di Venezia (Aperto '84) was an exception. He is active as a painter, printmaker and draughtsman.
Born: 1953 - Warsaw
Residence: Warsaw, Poland
Artwork: Abstractive / Surrealism / Figurative
Media: Oil Painting / Drawing / Engraving
official site:
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Major Solo Shows:
1976 Galeria Dziekanka, Warsaw
1979 Kwarz Galerie, West Berlin; Galeria Krytykow Pokaz, Warsaw; Kunstkabinett L. Petri, Hof
1980 Galeria Zapiecek, Warsaw; Kunsthalle, Nuremberg
1984 Galerie in der Freiheitshalle, Hof
1985 Galerie Kwartijn, Amsterdam; Galerie Les fous de l'Ile, Paris
1987 Galeria Test, Warsaw; Galeria BWA "Pod Wodnikiem", Gdańsk; Galeria BWA, Jelenia Góra
1988 Galeria BWA, Łódź; Galeria BWA, Gdańsk; Galeria BWA, Zamość
1990 Galerie Transit, Berlin
1991 Galeria Milano, Warsaw 1993 Galeria Studio, Warsaw
1994 State Art Gallery, Łódź; Galeria Milano, Warsaw
1997 Galeria BWA, Gorzów
1998 Galeria DAP, Warsaw
1999 Galeria Bayer, Warsaw
2001 Galeria Milano, Warsaw
2002 Andrzeja Biernacki Browarna Gallery, Łowicz
2003 Galeria Test, Warsaw
2004 Kordegrada Gallery, Warsaw
2014 Wystawa 'Derekonstrukcja', Exhibition 'Dereconstruction' Warsaw
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