Press Release

Cezary Poniatowski and Radek Szlaga use entirely different artistic languages, their works are based on disperate syntaxes, their grammar is ruled by unrelated laws. Hence the title of the exhibition, referring to two different artistic dialects, but also to the ambiguity of the word “speaker”, meaning in English not only a person who uses its native language but also a source of sounds.

Poniatowski’s monochrome, sometimes oppressive aesthetics echoes the works of Polish sculptor Henryk Morel (1937-1968). It is filled with post-apocalyptic tension, radiating from the once useful objects covered in artificial leather, knocked out of their original functions, gathered again in mysterious dispositions.

Radek Szlaga is on the other hand exploring the joy of playing with a perfectly mastered medium of peinting, breaking its codes, turning it sometimes towards abstraction, sometimes in the direction of mischievous realism. He teases the illustrative, sweeping tendencies known from post-Tuymans artists, generously scattering motifs, setting traps in viewers, and weaving personal stories.

At the “Native Speakers” exhibition in the Skala gallery, the main theme is sound, its importance in culture, but also the vision of its jamming, cutting off and annihilation. On the one hand, music is an element of the emerging identity – in the 1980s or 1990s, recording rock songs on blank cassettes took the form of an almost mystical ritual and a clear declaration of worldview. Radek Szlaga, brought up on the ideals of the Cold War dream about America, reaches for the soundtracks of his childhood. There is no idealization here, but rather a settlement, intertwined with light nostalgia and humor. Hence “Painting” inscribed in the shape of the famous Metallica logo.

Cezary Poniatowski constructs his works from elements reminiscent of rooms that isolate from sound, often their building material are loudspeakers – deaf, hollow, deprived of their principled function. It is a universe of disinherited objects, sometimes sewn together with a thick seam made of cable ties, glaring at the viewer with the empty eye sockets of binoculars. These artworks evoke anxiety, evidence of lack, persistent absence.

Both these archipelagos are linked by references to music – traces of its presence, but also of its persistent lack. And although it is in vain to look for the sound literally emanating from any of the works, the visual rhythm seems to be quite enough. Another element that connects the artists is their immersion in the world of American culture. Radek Szlaga is inclined to the United States at the time of the end of the Cold War, a land full of resolute hope, imprinted in the entire arsenal of popular entertainment. Cezary Poniatowski also draws from American iconography, but the one focused on social anxieties, exploring the post-apocalyptic themes notoriously repeated in the cinema. It all adds up to an intriguing duet that expresses various phantasms, a kind of nostalgia and a passion.”

Text by Alicja Rekść


See on Skala’s website