Elegance, Minimalism, Flesh: CR loves Paweł Skurski

“Elegance, minimalism, flesh:” three dominating aspects of Paweł Skurski’s work, writes art historian Marta Kołakowska. “A grand manifestation of vitality”, a “fascination with woman and with questions about her nature and magnetism, secrets of Venus”. Skurski is obviously intrigued by the deuxième sexe, which isn’t surprising for an artist, what’s more, a sensitive artist and especially, a young, sensitive artist, adds sociologist Piotr Sarzynski.

CR stumbled upon 32-year-old Paweł Skurski’s work in Galeria Napiórkowska in Warsaw. It was an instant coup de coeur. Although a recent graduate from Akademia Sztuk Pięknych (2003), Skurski’s work is that of “a mature artist, who knows what to do and how to do it well,” writes Polish historian and art critic Stach Szabłowski. Like many artists of his generation, he paints from magazine pictures, often using tempra, rarely employed nowadays, as a result endowing the fashionable, “pop-photo-realistic” convention with a surprisingly classicist form, the historian adds. In Skurski’s paintings, we discover the world of beautiful people and luxurious gadgets, models and “golden boys”, electronic toys and expensive cars. It’s the consumption dream without boundaries; with desire omnipresent and idealized.

Paintings found on the internet, through the Galeria Napiórkowska and Paweł Skurski’s portfolio.

CR

Kinia Adamczyk

Kinia Adamczyk is a full-time Canadian and part-time Pole. Or maybe it's the other way around. When she's not pondering about hyphenated identities, Kinia makes a living muckraking at an investigative TV show in Montreal, writing, traveling and creating all sorts of fun things, including cool recipes and online magazines – she was a co-founder of cosmopolitanreview.com in 2008, while doing her Master's in European studies in Warsaw at the College of Europe. She finished her undergrad in journalism and communication studies at Concordia University in Montreal, with a year spent in Denmark and the Netherlands.