Exhibition of paintings by Darek Pala: “Bridges”.

Exhibition title: Bridges

Author: Darek Pala

Curator: Wiesława Wideryńska

Opening: 24.10 at 8 p.m. during the opening of the Limited Edition Gallery

Duration: 25.10.2013 - 24.11.2013

It is no coincidence that the opening of a new contemporary art gallery, ambitious in its intentions, is accompanied by the opening of an exhibition by Darek Pala, an artist who is constantly in search of new forms of expressing his emotions. The diversity in Pala's work is downright astonishing. The changes concern not only the subject itself, but also the painting techniques and the materials on which the paintings are created (e.g., boxes, boards). The painter is constantly escaping from routine looking for a way to express himself.

There is another reason, besides his undeniable talent as a painter, why Darek Pala's works inaugurate a gallery with plans to sell contemporary art. That reason is the painter's spectacular success in the art market. His painting delights by providing people with an almost physical pleasure. When acquiring an artist's work, they are choosing to interact with a painting most likely hanging on a wall in the buyer's private space. What is the reason for this? Perhaps it is the explosion of color mixed with emotion poured onto the canvas that is so attractive to the viewer. Undoubtedly, color in the works of Darek Pala is the most important. It is what primarily attracts the attention of the onlooker and forms the basis of his painting. It is undeniably the result of the artist's formal search, as well as a kind of transmitter of his personal emotions.

Darek Pali's path to color took a surprising turn. After graduating from the High School of Fine Arts in Częstochowa, he decided to become an architect. He began his studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. However, he quickly came to the conclusion that a more interesting occupation for him was to study fine arts. As a result, he graduated in graphic design from the same university. However, as he says: doing printmaking did not give him such a release, so the idea of an appendix in painting in the studio of the well-known Cracow painter Zbyslaw Maciejewski, who considered himself an heir to Polish colorism and modernism, was born. Hence Darek Pala's fascination with Cracow postcolorism, which originated in the post-Modern Polish tradition. In the artist's early paintings one can find something of the atmosphere of Wojtkiewicz, Weiss maybe Boznanska. Such a way of painting alive in the Cracow environment differed from the style of art created in the circles of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, which was also probably an attraction for the capital's connoisseurs interested in art and its collection. In the figural compositions, which are slave to a certain tendency toward decorativeness, and which brought the painter his greatest popularity, the human being is treated as an equal element with every other part of the painting, the light in the picture becoming the paint's own light. At this time, Darek Pala paints mainly in oils thickening the structure of the painting often changing the colors completely. The works contain a subjective element showing the artist's individual experiences to almost recognizable situations and people, turning into a kind of social chronicle with stories tinged with irony even grotesque. This kind of imagery also brings the artist numerous fans of his paintings.

Darek Pala's work was not without influence from his several years in Florida. He brought a change in the way he painted, new themes - including an unusual series of situations played out in the pool. Narrative, full of symbols, the paintings of the "pool" series convey to the viewer a story about people and their behavior while in the pool their emotions, their relationships with each other. The psychological picture of people's behavior in a specific situation supported by painterly solutions, bold colors, forms, textures make an attractive image for the viewer. The exhibition will also feature the painter's latest oil works, including two paintings from the series mentioned earlier. The previous way of building an image with a flat spot is at some point replaced by a composition with depth of plan.

For the first time, the exhibition accompanying the opening of the "Limited Edition" Art Gallery at Rozbrat 44a will feature new paintings by Darek Pala. An important complement to the oil paintings will be an exhibition of drawings, which are a kind of notebook of the painter's private life, not intended to be presented at exhibitions. "The skill of drawing is the source and essence of painting itself," is what Michelangelo said about drawing five centuries ago. Darek Pala's works feed private collections at home and abroad. The selection shown at the exhibition is just a part of the very diverse output of the artist, who says of himself, "I can't imagine life without painting. I can't do anything else anymore. I have to paint... ".

Curator of the exhibition: Wieslawa Widerinska