from now till today
mary and margaret
local heroes
ariadne
sampling spaces
accumulation
solaris
inteview
kind of woman
The cycle, Accumulation, depicts a particular situation between a few people. The artist through visual means ‘tells’ us about their mutual relations and interdependence. Prior to this cycle Paweł Mendrek painted large-format portraits focusing on details, history and the identity of a singular human being. According to the artist his new paintings are similar to films – they have an internal narration with a proper beginning, culmination point and ending, they cover a broader perspective.
The work is carried out using a mixed technique: painting, photography, cut outs from newspapers, collage, graphics, drawing. The choice of a particular technique depends on the subject. One spot on the canvas is sometimes repainted many times, subsequent layers build up – paper, photo and paint. The aim is to obtain a multidimensional image which looks familiar at first glance; it refers to everyday life, but contains several layers which can be discovered both in their meaning and technique.
Applying various techniques gives the artist more freedom to create a dimensional world on canvas. Mutual relations between the forms create situational tension, mutual interaction of the shapes form a narration, a synthesis of the situation. Despite the lavish texture the work is distinctly sparing, we can say - rough. It is the detail that counts, such as the outline of the character’s silhouettes – is this a torn-out outline or a ruler-straight one, does it fade and melt into the background – all this ‘builds’ the characters like props build an actor’s role. / Accumulation, Flying Gallery, Warsaw /
Paweł works in silence, he stops the world just for a moment. Time in which continuance ability sleeps under the pile of paper. The world comes into being. Amusing as well as dignified, agglutinated from memory and oblivion of reality codes. World space gained by Paweł appears from rejected things recognized in the past. The future on the images is still an opened horizon of becoming things anew. All used quotations are displaced in incomplete shape, constructing new associations and moods. Circumferenced by colour, fulfilled with line, agglutinated with each other by impossibility becomes a ground for people and forms. Their mutual relations of making, obliterating, suspending may be established only by becoming the newcomers in the space, real but not obvious. Although different, all that world has its regionality and casuality. Smells like familiar shape. / mag. Ewa Zasada, Little Moments, Ariadne Gallery Vienna /