Last weekend saw the conclusion of Bartek Świątecki’s Chasing The Wind exhibition at Chenus Longhi in Paris. It seems that Poland has produced a disproportionately large number of artists who started out writing graffiti and have then stretched the movement’s foundational principles to oblivion in their own unique ways, creating new languages of expression in the process. Świątecki, also known as Pener, was part of the Spectrum crew alongside the likes of Proembrion and later painted walls in Bydgoszcz with Sainer and Bezt before increasingly turning his attention to his studio practice.
His studio is based in Olsztyn and this new body of work heavily references the surrounding Masuria region’s natural environment. The canvases and panels are built up with multiple layers of paint and glaze which provide a hyper-saturated interpretation of some of the regions 2,000 ultramarine lakes, verdant forested hills and yellow wild flower meadows. While, for some, plein-air landscape painting conjures up notions of sedate and gentile relaxation, Pener instead embraces the chaotic energy of nature through the use of thrusting, angular mark-making and dynamic, fluid composition.
Photo credit: feralthings
