Zbigniew Rogalski

Project for a stadium (1), 2007, oil on canvas, 140 x 220 cm Project for a stadium

The artist has cooperated with a young architect who provided him with a series of mo-dels – fantastical projects of sport stadiums. These were used by the artist in his further work which included preparing a series of photographic sketches, later used as a basis for paintings. The paintings depict fog-shrouded and unreal stadium constructions made of cardboard which, on the one hand, fit into the long tradition of utopian architecture, and on the other hand, refer to a very real stadium activity: that of shooting flares during matches. Rogalski’s paintings are a multilayered reflection on the essence of artistic process, the meaning of which is always based on both creating reality and depicting it – in a conventional and mediated way.

Project for a stadium (4), 2007, oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cmProject for a stadium (2), 2007, oil on canvas, 140 x 215 cm

Wings

Untitled (Wings 1-4), 2007Series of 4 photographs, C-print,

aluminum, plexi, 160 x 160 cm

Large-scale studio photographs of miniature birds’ wings, inspired by the thematically

analogous series of watercolors by Albrecht Durer. An attempt to depict the elaborate

and delicate build of birds’ feathers with the highest degree of precision, which cannot

be achieved trough painterly means and techniques. This project was prepared for the artist’s individual show at Almine Rech

Gallery in Paris (2007), which was devoted to various experiences of flying.

Crash Position (1), 2007, oil on canvas, 140 x 140 cmCrash Position (2), 2007, oil on canvas, 140 x 140 cm

Painting about flying and the experiences connected with it – the person floats under the ceiling like a balloon, being hunched in a position recommended during an emergency landing.

Untitled (Turban), 2006, oil on canvas, 160 x 100 cm

Closer (boy), 2006, oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cmCloser (girl), 2006, oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm

Series of 3 paintings – intimate portraits. Faces lying on pillows, are depicted from too close distance – images double, facial features lose their individuality, leaving the question of gender open.

Closer

How she sees the moon, 2007, oil on canvas

The painting is an attempt to inquire into the fact how others see. Otherness also refers to a vision defect. The sight of the moon is split and, at the same time, unnaturally close, which brings to mind the loss of focus connected with examining objects from a very close distance - just like in the portrait series “Closer”. Rogalski is fascinated with the moment in which, due to an over-intensive observation, we seem to be loosing the unambiguous quality of an image, and perceive objects in a different way than we would if we were using our knowledge of them.

Constellations, 2006, oil on canvas, 55 x 55 cmConstellations, 2006, oil on canvas, 55 x 55 cm

Black box

Funeral PortraitsWanda Blonska, 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cmLucyna Rozbicka, 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm

Contemporary vanitas. The inspiration for this series of paintings was the image reflected on the surface of the porcelain funeral photographs. Individual paintings are portraits of young deceased women, whose graves Rogalski photographed during a visit to one of the Warsaw’s cemeteries.

NN, 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm

Projection [1], 2006 oil on cardboard, 6 panels, 240 x 360 cm, 2 cardboard objects: 101 x 30 x 23 cm + 8 x 30 x 21 cm; the view of the exhibition in the Lodz Art Museum presented during the ‘Museum as a Luminous Object of Desire‘ exhibition. Project created in cooperation with Michal Budny

Projection

Projection, 2006, 3 paintings (oil on cardboard, 240 x 360 cm + [2x] 180 x 270 cm), 3 cardboard sculptures; the view of the exhibition in Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw

Refined multi-level project concerned with the visionariness of art, it’s illusions and material dimension. An ‘Unplugged’ video projection: a cardboard model of a projector ‘projects’ the ima-ges on a screen, which is in fact a painted image of a video projection. The painting depicts abstract constructs made of cardboard and household utilities, which create an utopian architec-

tural model composed by the artists – a subjective projection of the future Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.Project created in cooperation with Michal Budny

Private Spring (1), 2005, 120 x 170 cmPrivate Spring (2), 2005, oil on canvas, 120 x 170 cm(Self)reflective attempt at a contemporary landscape painting. In the photograph, included in the passé-partout, one can see a refection of the artist’s studio.

Private Spring (1), 2005, 120 x 170 cm Private Spring

Friends, 2006, oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm

Death of a partisan

Death of a partisan (6), 2005, oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cm

Death of Partisan (1-6), 2005, oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cm

Paintings refer to a scene from a soviet war film depicting the death of a partisan from his subjective point of view. Pictures depict a moment in which the contours of reality are beginning to blur. Owing to an unusual point of view

employed by the painting it is us who, while standing before the painting, become the title character.

My collectionMy Collection (Andreas Gursky Rhein II), 2005, oil on canvas, 115 x 200 cm

My Collection (Andreas Gursky Untitled), 2005 oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm

The artist creates a view in which the imagined merges with the real into a perfect whole. In a vast photograph of the river Rheine by Andreas Gursky

the interior of Rogalski’s studio is reflected.

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Air, 2003, painted cardboard, schotch tape, 17 elements, 17 x 32 x 33 cm3D puzzle: two apartment houses surrounded by air

on the left: Zbylina (4), 2004, oil on canvas, 47 x 47 cmabove: Zbylina (2), 2004, oil on canvas, 45 x 45 cm

The hybridal figure of Zbylina is a combination of two bodies: the artist - Zbigniew (ZBY-) and his girlfriend - Karolina (-LINA) bodies.

Together

Together (1), 2004, oil on canvas, 150 x 115 cmThe main heroin of this series – even if not always fully visible on the painting – is the painter’s partner, Karolina.

Together (3), 2004, oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cmTogether (4), 2004, oil on canvas, 116 x 82 cm

<< Together (2), 2004, oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm

Untitled, 2004, oil on canvas, 115 x 150 cm >>

Painting alluding to the ‘Together’ series. While pain-ting, Rogalski used his own studio photographs and paper shapes which he employed in them – in this case the shape of an exhaust cloud.

Crumpled letters, 2003, worn cardboard, 9 elements, dimensions variable

Heroes

Untitled [Tierieszkowa], 2003, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cmUntitled [Gagarin], 2003, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

Works from the ‘Heroes’ series, where the names of musicians, painters, philosophers and astronauts appeared written with a finger on a steamed-up glass pane.

Untitled [Laika], 2003 oil on canvas, 45 x 50 cm

Untitled, (Bauhaus), 2005, oil on canvas, 140 x 100 cm

One of self-portraits in front of a steamed-up mirror. The words written on the steamed-up surface were usually the names of the

painter’s favorite musicians: Joy Division, Bauhaus, Bjork.

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Untitled (Bjork), 2003, 140 x 110 cm

Jealousy

Untitled (Jealousy), 2004, oil on canvas, 140 x 100 cm

Series alluding to Rogalski’s favorite works of modern and contempo-rary art – here, in the background of the word ‘jealousy’ one can see Yves Klein’s ‘Leap into the Void’...

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Insomnia, 2003, oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm

About my neighbour’s death, 2003 oil on canvas, 150 x 160

A painting inspired by a real event – the death of the author’s neighbour. The body of the deceased was found a few days after the death, in an apart-ment adjacent to Rogalski’s studio and apartment.

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Science Fiction (2), 2004, oil on canvas, 75 x 105 cm

Ocean feeling, 2004, oil on canvas, 130 x 180 cm

Untitled, 2002, oil on canvas, 65 x 80 cm

Euro, 2003, oil on canvas, 150 x 200 cm

I miss you, 2003, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm

Untitled, 2000, oil on canvas, 50 x 50 cm

Zbyszek Rogalski (left), in Jackson Pollock’s studio helps an American

painter with his next painting.

from the Big Wheel series, 2002, b&w photographs, 50 x 70 cm Hubert fights with the dragon, 2001, oil on canvas, 180 x 240 cm >>

MAGISTERS Zbigniew Rogalski & Hubert Czerepok

Hen-Hornet, 2001, oil on canvas, 160 x 160 cm

Now, I’ll be your wolf!, 2001, oil on canvas, 140 x 250 cm, + video loop

Journey to the End of Boredom, 2000, set of 430 photo prints, 15 x 21 cm each

from the series: Very High Degree of Consciousness, 2000, b&w photographs, 100 x 150 cm

ZBIGNIEW ROGALSKIBorn in 1974 in Dabrowa Bialostocka, graduated from the Painting Department of the Poznan Fine Arts Academy (1999). Together with Hubert Czerepok formed Magisters group (2000-2002). Lives and works in Warsaw.

Zbigniew Rogalski is a painter, or rather a director of paintings, as he moves with great ease both in the regions of painting and photography, mixing them and taking advantage of both disciplines. Reflexes, after-images, film stills and photographs all overlap the image of reality, as if in a specially constructed optic machine which retains on the surface of the canvas the emotions and meanings which normally are no more permanent than a drawing on a steamed-up glass. A number of his works allude to the classic genres of painting, such as portrait or landscape. However, by interweaving different clichés and conventions of representation, Rogalski is led to surprisingly essential painterly solutions which make the tradition of this medium interesting again. He suc-ceeds in restoring a visionary element in painting and does it in a very suggestive manner. The surface of the painting becomes for a short while a screen on which the obsessions, fear and revelations of our conscious-ness are being displayed. This is first and foremost the painting of imagination. It does allow for a non-reflecti-ve consumption of the visual world, but continuously leads us to the final and elusive matters. Sometimes it is beautiful, sometimes it is scary, but there are moments, as in the paintings from the ‘Death of Partisan’ series, that these two emotions blend into one.

selected solo exhibitions:

2008- Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL- Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (with Michal Budny)

2007- Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, F

2006- Letter, Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, D- Kunsthalle Mannheim, D- Projection, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL (with Michal Budny)

2005- Private Spring, Goettinger Kunstverein, Goettingen, D- Death of a Partisan, Raster, Warsaw, PL- Entropia Gallery, Wroclaw, PL

2004- Mute, galerie griedervonputtkamer, Berlin, D

2003- Selfportrait under the canvas, Raster, Warsaw, PL- Selfportrait under the canvas, BWA Gallery, Zielona Gora, PL- Selfportrait under the canvas, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL- Selfportrait under the canvas, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, PL

2001- On the silver globe (as Magisters group), Raster and Austrian Cultural Foum, Warsaw, PL- Magisters. The greatest hits, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL

2000- Child in Time, ON Gallery, Poznan, PL- Painter, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL

1999- Painting, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL

1998- Nad Wisla Gallery, Torun, PL

selected group exhibitions:

2007- XXS (Extra Extra Small), Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv, ISR- Asteism, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL (as Magisters group)- Here a Change Occurs, Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw, PL

2006- Neuerwerbungen der Sammlung Marx, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, D- Museum as a Luminous Object of Desire, Museum of Art, Lodz, PL- Polish Painting of the 21st century, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL- Thank You For The Music, Sprüth Magers Lee, London, GB- Is it better to be a good artist or a good person?, Raster at Rental Gallery, Los Angeles, USA- Gut und billig. Aktuelle polnische Malerei aus der Sam-mlung Cyganek, Museum Junge Kunst, Frakfurt/Oder, D- Broniewski, GWA Gallery, Zielona Gora, PL

2005- Poles Apart: Contemporary Polish Art, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA- Thank You For The Music, Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, D- Broniewski, Raster, Warsaw, PL- Egocentric, Immoral, Outmoded... (as Magisters group), Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL- Prague Biennale 2. The expanded painting, Prague, CZ- Potential. Contemporary Art Collections for the Muse-um…, Metropolitan building, Warsaw, PL- Revenge on realism, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, A- Painting - Cold Medium, Piekary Gallery, Poznan, PL

2004- From My Window. Artists and their Territories, Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, F- Zasiedzenie, Arsenal Gallery, Poznan, PL- Breakthrough. Perspectives on art from the 10 new EU member states, Grote Kerk, Den Haag, NL- Malerei 2, Galerie Ruediger Schoettle, Munich, D- At home, The Letterkenny Arts Centre, Letterkenny, IRL- Pluzzle, galerie griedervonputtkamer, Berlin, D

- Under The Red & White Flag, New Art from Poland, Estonian Art Museum, Tallin, EST; Contemporary Art Cen-tre, Vilnius, LT; Nizhny Novgorod branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art, Arsenal, Niznhy Novgorod, RU; Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts, Niznhy Tagil, RU; National Centre for Contemporay Arts, Moscow, RU- Age of Romanticism, Polish Institute, Kiyv, UKR

2003- Age of Romanticism, Palace of Arts, Lviv, UKR- Malerei, Galerie Johnen+Schoettle, Cologne, D- RASTER. Aktuelle Kunst aus Polen (as Magisters group), Junge Kunst Museum, Frankfurt/Oder, D- Inelastic collision (as Magisters group), Institute of Con-temporary Arts, Dunaujvaros, H

2002- Dobrze, In Ordnung (as Magisters group), Kunstbuero, Vienna; Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz, A- Rowelucja (Bike revolution), Raster, Warsaw, PL- Indeed young ones are realists (as Magisters group), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL

2001- 4th Polish Young Artists’ Show, BWA Awangarda Gallery, Wroclaw, PL- Good, Raster, Warsaw, PL- Fish eye, Baltic Gallery for Contemporay Art, Slupsk/Ust-ka, PL- Relax, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, PL- Slubice-Poznan, Prowincjonalna Gallery, Slubice, PL

2000- Assembly kit, Polish Sculpture Centre, Oronsko, PL- Scene 2000, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, PL- Formidable brushes, Xawery Dunikowski Museum, Warsaw, PL

1999- Bielska Autumn, Bielska Gallery, Bielsko-Biala, PL- Young Art from Poznan, Galerie B, Frankfurt/Oder, D- Polish Analytical Abstraction, BWA Awangarda Gallery, Wroclaw, PL

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