Virtual
walk
Krzysztof Nowicki about the exhibition:
When describing the exhibition which he curated called Sanguine. Luc Tuymans on Baroque, Luc Tuymans defined the Baroque as the most frivolous phenomenon in the entire history of art. It is hard to disagree with him. Exaggerated, exciting, full of ambiguities, the Baroque stimulates our imagination. The very title of Tuymans’s exhibition shows a certain contrast, a certain multifacetedness characteristic of the era – on the one hand, the French “sanguine” is an adjective describing someone (something) joyful, optimistic, full of life, and on the other hand, this word means a blood-red color, symbolizing, among other things, revolution, struggle, death. This contrast reflects the Baroque reflection on society concerning the dependence of power and culture.
The art of the aforementioned period was created in conditions far from peace and harmony. Maybe we would like to see it this way because of the human tendency to feel nostalgia for the past. However, most scholars speak of the Baroque as a period of – to quote Christine Buci-Glucksmann – “the pervasive sense of political catastrophe, the collapse of tradition and the emergence of an uncertain and destructive present.” The feeling of being overwhelmed characterizes both the human experience of the Baroque and the present. The main reason for the emergence of the cultural phenomenon, which I consider to be the convergent sensibility dominating both periods, is perhaps the underlying founding error. The world fell into the trap of continuous development determined by the rationality of capitalism. The birth of capitalism was a long-term process. Some scholars date the beginnings of this process to the 14th century, although most date it to the 15th and 16th centuries. This means that the time of the most intensive formation of capitalism falls precisely during the historical Baroque. In my opinion, scenes of hunting and animal fights illustrate a distorted, capitalist way of perceiving the world, in which nature is subject to man. The figure of the dog is particularly interesting here, as it is theoretically part of the non-human world, but it has been appropriated due to its usefulness, and its natural instincts have been used against the animal world. Over time, they have ceased to be primarily tools. Societies change and grow. Especially in urban environments, dogs have had difficulty adapting, because they have had to get rid of their wild nature even more. In the urban order, there is no room for unpredictability and wildness. While a hunting dog can realize some of its instincts, for example in pursuit of game, a city dog no longer has such an opportunity and is forced to adapt to the reality surrounding it. Of course, a dog plays an important role in human life, for example by helping him cope with the stress of everyday life, but it does this not of its own free will. Dogs have acquired a strange status of beings between animals and humans. Humans, as beings stretched between nature and culture, somehow draw other beings into this territory. The sometimes blurred boundaries do not make it easier to find balance in these interspecies relations and a way of coexisting with non-human beings. Thus, scenes of fighting animals take on a different character today. Such representations can be associated with wartime skirmishes. Dogs, under the influence of humans and at their command, attack other animals that together with them co-create the natural animal kingdom, from which humans try to separate themselves. The fact that an animal attacks an animal is not important here, as this has its place in nature. What is important is that they do it at the command of humans. Their instinct has become a tool for humans that can be used. The dog itself does not later consume the captured game. Thus, such scenes can be metaphorically referred to humans themselves, who through their own inventions bring about their own destruction and destroy their own habitat. If in representations of fighting animals we see nature opposing nature, then in the image of war we are dealing with culture destroying culture (and nature at the same time, which has consequences – again – for the culture itself).
The tone of the contemporary narrative about the world oscillates between an optimistic faith in science and its achievements and catastrophic visions of the future. I think that this is the reason why the Baroque sensibility has surfaced after years of absence. Postmodernity, filled with many uncertainties and problems, demands a similar response – this is why our existential condition resonates so much with the one expressed by the representatives of the Baroque.
Krzysztof Nowicki was born in 1988 in Bydgoszcz.
In 2013 he graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, and in 2024 he obtained a doctorate. Winner of the Grand Prix in the Artistic Journey of HESTIA 2013 competition, the Grand Prix of the 3rd Triennale of Pomeranian Art in PGS Sopot, honorary distinction in the competition of the F. Eibisch Foundation. Nominated, among others, for the Strabag Kunstforum Artward, the 12th Geppert Competition (BWA Wrocław). In 2014 he was an artistic resident at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. His works are in the collection of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the “m jak mlarstwo” collection of mBank, the Imago Mundi collection of Luciano Benetton and the collection of the Colony of Artists (Kolonia Artystów) Foundation. He lives and works in Warsaw.
Selected exhibitions:
Individual:
2022 – “Fold”, State Art Gallery, Sopot
2019 – “Oblivion”, MS44 Gallery, Świnoujście
2019 – “Decomposition is not guaranteed”, Jedna Druga Gallery, Szczecin
2018 – “Contamination”, Artists’ Colony, Gdańsk
Group exhibitions:
2022 – “Pull the Trigger”, Gdańsk City Gallery
2022 – “Face Crisis”, Municipal Gallery in Wrocław
2021 – “Harsh Times/Harte Zeiten”, BWA Bydgoszcz
2021 – “Hart Zeiten/Harsh Times”, Port 25 Gallery, Mannheim
2021 – “Madly Loved Earth”, Ul Gallery, Gdańsk
2019 – “My Name is Red”, PGS, Sopot
2019 – “Young Polish Painting”, National Museum in Gdańsk – Modern Art Department, Gdańsk
2016 – “And what do you do for painting?”, 12th Geppert Competition, Galeria Awangarda BWA Wrocław
2016 – “Among Faces”, PGS, Sopot
Awards, scholarships and more:
2022 – Gdańsk City Award for Young Creators of Culture
2021 – Nomination for Strabag Kunstforum Artaward, Vienna
2019 – Grand Prix III Triennale of Pomeranian Art, PGS, Sopot
2014 – Artist Home Base, artistic residency, Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong
2013 – 1st Prize in the “Hestia Artistic Journey” competition – scholarship in New York
2013 – Honorary Mention of the F. Eibisch Foundation competition, Warsaw
Portrait of a Young Lady as Diana, 2024, oil on canvas, 130 × 160 cm
Exhibition duration Dect 5, 2024 – Jan 30, 2025
Opening Dec 5, 2024 7 P.M.
Free admission
CULTURE INSTITUTION OF KALISZ
pl. św. Józefa 5
62-800 Kalisz Poland
Gallery Partners:
Mo GRUPA, AR NEON, SCHIMMEL Pianos, POLIFARB KALISZ S.A., M&P Alkohole Wina Cygara
Media patronage:
CALISIA.PL, RADIO CENTRUM, ZIEMIA KALISKA.