Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 150 cm / 79" x 59". Sides painted black. Signed on the back (right top - Łukasz Olek, "Brave New World", 2020; and on the front: "Łukasz Olek, 2019"). Brass plate on the side ("Lukasz Olek, www.lukaszolek.com). Not varnished, varnish on request.
Brave New World was exhibited at:
03.2023 11th Warsaw Art Market, Warsaw
04.2022 Project Art, Tryton Biznes House, Gdańsk
07.2021 EuropArtFair, Amsterdam, 1st Prize curators award
01.2021 Project Art, Domoteka, Warszawa. Solo exhibition “Blinkered”
07.2020 Project Art, Bonifacio Gallery. Solo exhibition „Blinkered”
06.2020 Warsaw Affordable Art Fair vol. 3
10.2019 Warsaw Affordable Art Fair vol. 2
06.2019 Warsaw Affordable Art Fair vol. 1
03.2019 Ney Gallery, Warsaw. Solo exhibition “Blinkered”
“Blinkered – having or showing a narrow or limited outlook”
Blinkered is a section of the world seen through a photographic lens and translated into the language of abstract painting. Author invites us to engage in aesthetic vivisection of the work and to inspect the hidden details on the surface. It has the effect of dualistic perception where large-format images draw the attention as close to the detail as possible.
The “Blinkered” landscapes are heterogeneous, but at the same time distinctive scrap of space has been narrowed down to just a few pixels, and then magnified to a large-format image. The figurative is therefore reduced to its basic and most crucial formal essence.
“Artist Statement”
Do you like getting lost on purpose? I love it. I always prefer local roads to the highway, and they usually lead me to the most interesting places.
Usually, the landscapes I paint come to life as a result of me getting literally lost. There, at the very end of the map, in peace and solitude, I can reflect on the surrounding world. And then, back at the studio, I look for ways to transfer my impressions onto the canvas. It is always my paramount goal: to imbue the painting with the emotions, forms, colours or, sometimes, even the after-images that place had left within me.
When creating, I like to get lost in various ways, looking for and testing new media, forms and techniques. Sometimes, from that momentary chaos, things emerge which stand in opposition to the calming landscapes which have inspired me. Surreal demons appear that dwell in most of us, under the skin or deeper within.
I see art as a road that takes me somewhere. That road is my meditation and a way to achieve peace. I hope it never ends because there should always be something more worth discovering.
