Dariusz Mlącki – Envelopes, Frames – Mystery, a constant source of art
curator: Anna Kłos
26.05.2022 – 24.06.2022
His latest creative activities are directed towards evoking emotions from childhood. I chose subjects and objects which I had been evoking repeatedly, even obtrusively, from my memory. Boxes, letters, children’s drawings, a box with a bow, the smell of a polished floor, colours and sounds. A series of works with special aesthetisation was created, e.g. Envelope of Roses, Envelope with the Sky, Box with Venice, Box with the Sky, Chocolates, Patterned Papers. In the extreme form, the work was based on found battle drawings I had produced at the age of ten. I painted my drawings creating a sort of an inverted palimpsest. The inverted palimpsest became the subject of my doctoral dissertation.
On the canvas, I painted the board I used in my childhood. On the painted board, I painted paper; on the painted paper: battles, planes, ships, and a knight on the background of a castle tower. The series is preceded by a faithfully portrayed folder sealed with grey tape in which I had kept the drawings from my childhood for the last thirty-five years. Concepts such as intuitionism, mimicry, aesthetisation, hyperrealism, illusionism, trompe l’oeil are all close to me. I am interested in contemporary creators but also inspired by Renaissance and Baroque artists. Subconsciously and consciously, I apply certain solutions and means from past eras. Sometimes a colour quote from Vermeer or Velázquez, the mystery of the light from de la Tour, brightness of colour from Piero della Francesca, Duchamp’s courage, Hirst’s ability to play with the market… A few years ago, I saw in London an exhibition of Cornelius Gisbrechts, Danish painter of the Danish kings. The artist was a master of painting illusion. The reverse of the painting is still life, depicting the painting from the other, unpainted side. This painting joke is an example of trompe l’oeil, an illusion confusing the eye about the realness of the object and its representation. It contains the same problem of identification of reality as in my interests. Seemingly, such approach to art appears to be charming, playful, but in a deeper semantic layer it is terrifying, as it touches our mortality, limited perception, imperfection, uncertainty of what we see and who we are.
The intuitive perception of reality and art allows me to feel real emotions. To create forms which emotionally affect other people’s perceptions. These forms are difficult to define because they contain many layers of meanings. Multilayeredness, in turn, makes the work autonomous. Humility towards the unpredictability of art and the process of its creation.
In all my artistic achievements, I place myself on the verge of minimalistic geometrical abstraction and objectivity. I squeeze out paint, turn it into colour, colour into light, light into space and space into meaning. I choose simple, deeply symbolic subject full of meanings. Symbols at rest with the possibility of endless interpretation. Illusion and play with the entire gallery space and the light emanating from the paintings serve to transform the physical space into a metaphysical one. I resort to painting illusion and use it as a means of expression, because I am interested in the problems of transcending reality, its temporary ebbs and flows.