Kasia Turajczyk » Painting

Kasia Turajczyk at Red Dot Miami – December,1-5 2011

Kasia — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:34:06 +0000

The Red Dot Art Fair once again takes place at the Wynwood Art District in Miami, from December 1 to 5. Red Dot Miami is conveniently located in a prime spot for art fairs, while taking place during Miami’s art fair season. Some neighbors would include Art Miami, Scope Miami, and Art Asia. Red Dot Miami also runs concurrently with Art Basel Miami Beach.

And I will be there represented by Artisan Direct Ltd. 6 of my paintings from the Return of Peter Pan Series will be to admire. I am not humble, but I am really love this series. The paintings are cheerful, mysterious, some of them surreal, some of them funny all of them really beautiful. I hope if you are living in Florida or close to Miami you will go and see my paintings. I would love it.

A selection of paintings from Return of Peter Pan Series

Red Dot Miami covers the entire spectrum of artists, including emerging, mid-career, and established artists. This year’s show involves nearly 45 galleries from all across the globe, specializing in both modern and contemporary art. Works include just about every medium in contemporary practice: painting photography, sculpture, and works on paper. There is also a special section devoted to the debut of specific film and photography projects. Additionally another newly developed section is reserved for books. This area is for publishing houses showing editioned publications and book arts. Red Dot Miami aims to promote this medium and bring recognition to independent publishers.

Contemporary Art in the Community #1/n

Kasia — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:33:09 +0000

“Contemporary Art in the Community” is a joint project between me Kasia Turajczyk and econnexus.org.

The idea of taking art to the community came from Jim (my partner). I think he was just bored with my constant monologue about contemporary art, or to be more accurate perhaps I should say modern contemporary art.

My monologue was about these issues:

How alienated modern contemporary art is from the image about art of the average man and woman in the street. The average person visiting a very contemporary art gallery or modern art centre at the present time doesn’t understand most of the presenting art works. She or he wants to understand the “art works”. Because they can’t understand it, explain it, find any sense in it, they think they don’t possess the academic knowledge about modern art, and they just don’t like it.
How alienated, exhausted and recessive art that is currently presented in contemporary art galleries, art shows and modern art museums. Actually, nobody understands contemporary art these days: not the art historicists, not the art curator, not even the people who are writing the articles in the art magazines or introductions in the books. Very often even the makers/the artists don’t understand them either. They just like it and make it up, because that is what others expect of them.
Art doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the 'Art' isn't art any more. Nothing is art and everything is art. Art is about personal and emotional engagement. You like it or you do not, you feel it or you do not feel it; it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you angry, it makes you disgusted. It is OK! How few techniques and skills are possessed by the new generation of students graduating from the Art Colleges these days.
Most of the artists presented in museums are talking to themselves, and have an inner dialogue with their empty mind.
However Pablo Picasso said: “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? .. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” Art is about feeling….or should I say NON-ART is about sensation. Maybe we never should think about what an artist is trying to convey, just concentrate on what the piece means to you, how it makes you feel. After all it is your personal experience!

And so forth and so forth…..

One day, just a few hours before our trip to the ocean (body boarding) Jim came out with a idea about taking ART to ordinary people and discussing contemporary art and art in general. “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” since September 29, 2011.

The primary aim of the project is to take contemporary art out of galleries and museums, to take it out of artist's studios, and to show it to all sorts of different people in a variety of environments and locations around South West England.

We would like to discover from the ordinary people of Devon and Cornwall, what kind of art they like and what they don’t like. What contemporary art means to them? Are they interested in art at all? Is there a place for art in their life, living room, kitchen, mind? Or maybe they are not interested in art at all? These are the sort of questions we are going to be asking people on our travels. Maybe we will ask you too!

The preview of Contemporary Art in the Community

Widemouth Bay, North Cornwall, South West England
Thursday 29th September 2011

In which Graham meets a being born in the nebula of the constellation of Orion for the very first time, and is moved by Mintaka's message for mankind.

Gravity's Harlequin from Peter Pan Series

Kasia — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:03:25 +0000

In this new work from the Peter Pan Series I wanted to capture a movement. I liked the idea of the clown in motion. I have already painted him motionless, so this time I wanted to paint him in action. There is a certain uncertain power which is pulling my little harlequin- clown in one direction. However when you look very close and you pay the attention to the body of the harlequin you can discover an inclination to go in the opposite direction. And there is also Gravity, the natural phenomenon by which the body of my little friend attracts with a force proportional to his mass. Instead of a force it could of course be space-time curvature instead. An interesting idea for a new painting.

Gravity's Harlequin - acrylics on canvas; € 1.450

The process of creating an acrylics painting on canvas

Kasia — Sun, 29 May 2011 14:51:43 +0000

Last year during the process of painting my Magnolia acrylics paintings I have been recorded myself. I made a short video document from the fragments I recorded. Every single artist has an own unique style of painting. Some love to paint when they are naked, some needs alcohol in their blood, while others prefer a good quality joint. I prefer listening to music and talking to myself. Dependent of the sort of art I create sometimes I sit, sometimes stay up, sometimes I run or walk around the work I create. Large abstract paintings or collages often lie on the floor or on the grass in the garden and I run as a crazy bull around them. From time to time I lie on the floor or kneel down.

Here in this short video I am just sitting in the chair in my summer studio, the canvas is in the easel and I behave very normal and conventional. Sometimes I am normal.

RETURN OF PETER PAN

Kasia — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:01:07 +0000

Do we really have to give up our dreams and allow society to rule our lives? It starts from the moment that we are born: “You have to do so, you have to behave in this way, you can’t say that, you can’t do that, don’t look like that, don’t move, don’t cry, don’t laugh, don’t think, don’t breath”.

Lying is a bad thing to do but telling the truth isn’t good either. When you grow up society expects from you to have a job, to make money, to find a partner to reproduce new offspring and after that do the same to them what your parents did to you; program them.

For thousands of years humans have agreed to be so and to do so. Without any guarantee that our lives will be better, happier or healthier. The primitive instinct to procreate and the other strong instinct; to stay alive, occupy the humans’ minds. It is encoded in our universal DNA even if we know we all die, eventually; and that our death is often despicable and undeserved.

We are working with persistence to develop new technologies, to make our lives easier but at the same time to destroy each other with more sophistication. We created a kind of civilisation, but it is very primitive. To be true we didn’t change as homo sapience a lot the last 10000 years. Wars, conflicts, exploitation, slavery, deceptions, envy, propaganda, jealousy and the all surrounding fear control our existence.

The best way to survive in this world it is to find your inner child and escape into that reality; hide there and wait till the end of your life.

Puella aeterna and puer eaternus are the heroes of my new series entitled “Peter Pan”. They are not present in these paintings; you can’t find their faces at surfaces or in the background. They are invisible; only their souls are smiling to us.

I think that becoming a mature person isn’t synonym for better. Definitely, it doesn’t mean better life. To stay a child for ever is only the one possible alternative to survive in this horrible world. Contrary the physiologists arguments……..Live Long Peter Pan! Voilà

I am dreaming about different world because the reality of this one I just don’t like. I am painting my own sweet and cute non- reality.

This time I am invite you into the world of Piglet, Mike, Bobby, Tony and Kasia.

This painting is an acrylics on canvas.

"Return of Peter Pan" - acrylics on canvas 2011

The Tree tales Series – My friend Oak

Kasia — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:35:24 +0000

I love trees; I guess it is impossible not to love them. They are the silent guards of human history, both collective and private memories. If they only could talk…they would be able to tell us the most incredible stories, stories beyond our imagination.

My new series is about the trees “The Tree tales”. The trees from my paintings are telling stories: sad, cheerful, dramatic, funny, horrible, disgusting, beautiful…sometimes real, sometimes surreal, and sometimes fantastic……conform our lives, lies, black swans and quantum physics.

Yes, I am back into the figurative style. I never painted trees before because I found them so perfect in reality that every copied image looked very kitschy to me. It is a fact, that nature in its essence is perfect; most of the landscape paintings, that are trying to copy nature, are only a bad imitations of it. The most important aspect is to make an own interpretation of the subject and add also personal emotions into it.

So, what changed my mind, why this Tree Series? The most important aspect is being very close to nature, being surrounded by an incredible beautiful landscape, and observing the structure of the nature every day. Another aspect is my different approach to painting the nature. I don’t just paint the trees, my trees are the context of my work and the subject of it, both.

And most important, my trees are telling stories…and if you listen very carefully you can hear them. Most of us are living in an urban environment, in big cities, far away from forests, woodlands and trees. Most of us aren’t surrounded by ageing, ancient oaks, aches, elms, birches, maples, English yews and all the other distinguished, sometimes frivolous beautiful trees. I am just giving back; I am very fortunate to live in Devon, surrounded by beautiful, often very old trees.

My favourite tree is the oak. It looks like an old, wise Knight, or maybe a transcendental Wizard with its gnarled branches. My oak, is a very old one from Dunchideock. It is telling a story about ancient battles, lovers trysts and quarrels. Everything is in there if you pause long enough to tune in to this magnificent time portal.

"My Friend Oak is telling a story, again" – acrylics on canvas, 2010

"The inflamed eye of the beholder" from my surreal Eye Series.

Kasia — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:11:05 +0000

If there is a way to free ourselves from suffering
We must use every moment to find it.
Only a fool wants to go on suffering.
Isn’t it sad to knowingly imbibe poison?

Seventh Dalai Lama

Yes, we suffer, at every moment and throughout the world. Every second, someone dies, every second, someone is murdered, tortured, beaten or maimed. Some people are separated from their loved ones. Others are abandoned, betrayed, expelled and rejected. Some are killed out of hatred, greed, ignorance, ambition, pride or envy. Parents lose their children, children lose their parents. Some die of hunger, cold, exhaustion; others are charred by fire, crushed by rocks, or swept away by the waters. This is a simple truth. These are not merely words, but a reality that is an intrinsic part of our daily lives: death and suffering. But we can’t turn away from it. That would be indifference or cowardice.

Garden Art Wall Installation – CD's – Part II

Kasia — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:12:23 +0000

The "Beautiful and Ugly" project has now been officially closed. The deadline has been slightly shifted in time. A few people could not visit me during the Devon Open Studios event itself, and asked me not to dismantle the installation but instead to wait until they had a chance to see it.

Here are the images of the final result:

The end result 2 October 2010

Ugly - final reslut

Beautiful final October 2010

The installation in the Garden of Lyalls Cottage

Unused CD

My conclusions:

Brown, yellow-brown and red colours predominate on the "ugly" side.

Emphatic resistance to the colour red. The CD's in red on the side of "Beautiful" are only in combination with other colours.
They are lots of CDs on the Ugly side that I personally like a lot.

And last, but perhaps the most important conclusion:

De gustibus non est disputandum.

"In matters of taste there is no dispute" said the Romans a long time ago and they were right. Any opinion on the topics of taste is futile. Objectively and logically it can be concluded that there is no good or bad taste. You cannot say that someone is wrong or that someone is right only because he or she likes something different than you. What I like you don’t have to. One should not judge others just because they feel differently and/or think differently.
To recapitulate, in general humans are stupid if they surrender themselves to the pressure of public opinion, newspapers, magazines, fashion designers, critics, art critics and so on. The implication is that the media prey on our stupidity. But this is a different discussion and a subject for another long debate!

Thank you very much to all of you who took part in making this installation.

It will now be dismantled and moved to Poland where I will have a solo exhibition later this year. I will post about the Polish results after the close of the exhibition in Poland in December.

Press Release – Devon Open Studios 2010

Kasia — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:15:02 +0000

Artist in Exeter/Dunchideock to take part in Devon Open Studios

Kasia Turajczyk
Lyalls Cottage, Dunchideock, Exeter, EX6 7YD

http://gallery.kasiaturajczyk.com

Phone: 01392 833904

Established Dunchideock artist, Kasia Turajczyk will be inviting guests into her studio/local gallery to view her new work this year in the forthcoming county-wide arts event, Devon Open Studios.

It is the largest showcase for artists in the county and Kasia Turajczyk will be joining over 260 artists opening their doors for 16 days from 4th –19th of September. Kasia will be taking part for the first time and is looking forward to her contribution to the event held at her studio in the garden of Lyalls Cottage and her gallery within the cottage.

Kasia began painting as a child, and for her becoming a successful artist is the realization of a life-long passion. She has lived in several countries with different political systems; diverse cultures, different languages, peoples, and landscapes and that fact has had a big influence on her development and growth as an artist and as a person.

Kasia works in diverse fields of art: paintings, installations, collages, fantasy art and new media. When you visit her studio you will be able to see examples of such work, together with recent abstract and modern figurative collages with a hint of surrealism, inspired by the nature of Devon. Nature is also a source of raw materials for Kasia's art, which enables her to achieve some very interesting structural effects.

She will also be showing some new installations entitled Personalities, created from old CD’s, acrylics and recycled materials (weather permitting in the open air of the garden). Kasia will also be inviting her visitors to take part in the process of producing an installation. She will be providing such an environment during the Open Studio weeks to make it possible for visitors to work together with her, and to have the opportunity to talk to her directly about the creative process.

Kasia Turajczyk is looking forward to the show and hopes that Devon Open Studios will help raise her profile. In 2009 over 30,000 visits were recorded, an almost two fold increase from the year before. Free to the public, the event provides a unique chance to see a wide variety of new work.

Devon Open Studios produces a comprehensive guide to help visitors plan their own art trail and combine browsing art with enjoyment of the county’s fantastic scenery. Free copies of the guide are now available at tourist information centres, libraries, galleries, and hotels. The most prominent place in Dunchideock where the guide will be available is the well known Lord Haldon Hotel (10 minutes walk from Kasia Turajczyk’s studio -http://www.lordhaldonhotel.co.uk).

The Blueberrry Fantasy - acrylics on canvas

"For Lesiu Orzesiu" – Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Piglet

Kasia — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:26:30 +0000

"If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

The painting “For Lesiu Orzesiu” is atypical for me at this moment. I used to paint in this way when I was 14 -16 years old. It was in the era when I first discovered oil paints and canvasses. My first oil painting, which I still have, presents Pinocchio, a toy made in Russia. I got it from Christopher, when I was 15 years old. I still have my Russian Pinocchio, unfortunately, he is missing his nose. The nose became detached somewhere, somehow, at some point during our joint trips. Pinocchio is made from plastic (such a very hard plastic) and is wearing knit wear made by me. I took him everywhere with me; we travelled together through almost the whole of Europe and some other parts of the world.

As a child I loved the story about Pinocchio and Geppetto. This wooden puppet gave me courage and hope that there was always a chance for salvation and rebirth. Although I was the opposite of Pinocchio, and told the truth. However, telling the truth got me constantly in trouble, too. I remember being surprised hearing my Mum telling lies and not growing donkey ears, I really expected her ears to grow. I am still waiting for this magical moment. When I finally realized that telling the truth is not practical, it was already too late for me. Not telling the truth turned out to be even greater torture than telling the truth. At some point of my life I started to create made-up stories, and this fact began to cause me much satisfaction, especially observing people listening to my far-fetched absurdities. My excuses for doing that were very simple. It was not lying or cheating with premeditation, it was just my imagination that needed to take flight.

Returning to the painting “For Lesiu Orzesiu” the creatures in it are real and the colours too. Lesiu asked me to make his beloved creatures immortal. I guess the painting will travel to India with him, soon. And so the word became flesh (the painting!) It is a medium sized painting on canvas 70cm x 50cm. I used the best Rembrandt’s acrylic paints (I think they are one of the best) with a minimum admixture of oil.
I hope that Peter Pan will always be alive in Lesiu and that Lesiu never lets him fade into oblivion. Amen!