22 October - 30 October: my solo exhibition
"FACE - TO - FACE"
James Joyce House
15 Usher's Island, Dublin 8
James Joyce House is delighted to announce the opening of “Face – to –Face”, an exhibition of new work by Andrzej Mazur. Having exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and abroad, at this Mazur shows a group of extraordinary drawings alongside with his newest oil paintings. The small intense canvases depict phantasmagorical landscapes populated by figures from an earlier time. Fiction and formalism go hand in hand in these works, dissolving the distinction between reality and illusion. Part figurative, part abstract, they continue Mazur’s on-going exploration of the language of painting.
With echoes of the Romantic landscapes of J.M.W. Turner and Caspar Friedrich, Mazur’s new paintings are bold in their execution. Layers of translucent pigment build up solid figures, whilst elsewhere paint has been scraped off to reveal the canvas beneath. Combining often ordinary source material to produce extraordinary juxtapositions, Mazur creates a painterly vision full of free agency that is entirely his own but is also universal in so many layers.
My works tell the human story from the perspective of fleeting moments, single occurrences. I’m trying express emotions and feelings in a uniquely subtle way – indirectly and between the verses. Sometime static, sometime expressive movements of my human figures, their gestures and mimicry become an almost abstract symbol of the state of mind that ‘the viewer’ projects onto his/her mental experiences. Let’s make an art to be a mirror where we all can stand “Face –to – face” to our inner life.
04.09.2014
"ILLUSION"
4-17 September / Opening: 4th September at 6PM
CULTURE BOX,12 East Essex St,Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Culture Box is delighted to announce the opening of Illusion, an exhibition of new work by Andrzej Mazur. Having exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and abroad, at this Andrzej shows a group of an extraordinary black-and-white collages made from cut-up prints. Working with fine 19th century engravings from books and journals as his source material, he cuts imagery with mind-boggling precision and complexity.
His work is instantly engaging, but draws us in only to disturb our initial perceptions. The familiarity of the material and its subject matters gives us tools with which to understand the work, but its arrangement and juxtaposition challenges the very nature of our viewing habits. By playing with the protocols and conventions of visual language, our curiosity and identification is transformed into astonishment, bewilderment and fascination.
"I would like to take you to a journey with me, to a world familiar yet not obvious, to the place where the senses are extra sharp and the mind is almost silent and some other truth is waiting to be discovered, where the artist connects with the viewers reality and dreams. Where the bare self is standing without a doubt, perhaps with fear and anticipation, but ready for empathy and understanding".
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"LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUL"
Culture Box, Temple Bar, Dublin
A collaborative show exploring the complexity and paradoxical nature of existence.
Opening reception: Thursday 6th March 2014, 7pm
The exhibition will be open by Bryan Dobson.
http://andrzej-mazur.com/link/Promo_Page_-_31432
Each creative act is a kind of a board which records dreams, reminiscences, events. It is a special,symbolic document, a page from a diary. But it is not enough to dream to turn yearning into a work of art. One has to enter a distinct area, more demanding than sensation itself: a risky trail of artistic adventure which needs to be equally loved, which promisws no tolerance, no compromise, no guarantee of reciprocity.
Andrzej Mazur: "Human form is the dominant element in my art. In this way, my work simultaneously gains unique humanistic and existential aspect. The heroes of my paintings are flesh and blood figures tangled in a web of various dependencies and constraints, which have their origins both in human relations, as well as those resulting from the internal experiences and dilemmas of the people in each composition. I rarely introduces crowd of characters. The composition is usually limited to one person, sometimes two. They are usually places in a confined space, even if it is obviously a landscape scene, which merges with the figure, blends with it and passes through. My painted human figures are organically linked with the place in which they are presented. This allow me to suggest a direct relationship that is not just physical, but is above all a mental relationship between individual characters and their surroundings".
Adam Kos is an artist with an extraordinary empathy and imagination.
“I am fascinated by the act of creation, whether in a set of beliefs or in a painting. By recreating the world on a two-dimensional surface I often find a truth more understandable than that of the real world. What systems can I create to understand the universe, good and evil, bliss? Metaphors simplify elusive ideas so one’s mind can wrap around them. I use them to help define an emotion, capture a faint impression of reality.
My work reflects my attempt to find a balance between outward- and inward-directed energy, between the individual and the larger world. Between cynicism and activism.
I react to what I feel is often an overly sanitized, and is projected on us by mass commercialization, or groupthink (or religion or politics or whatever).”
