Published in conjunction with Uklański's show at Dallas Contemporary, this monograph provides an in-depth critical examination of the artist's ongoing series of abstract “blood” and “ink drop” paintings—an evocative meditation on the passage of time and the inevitabile specter of death. In the words of Peter Doroshenko, “Uklański has created a provocative and wide-ranging body of work that defies categorization. He engages with nearly all forms of visual media, including installation, large-scale paper reliefs, tie-dyed paintings, textile-based immersive sculptures, resin-based sculptures and paintings, photography, performance, and a feature-length film titled Summer Love.” This catalogue features a specific body of paintings that conceptually overlap with many of his interests and cultural references. “While these works are abstract, they evoke numerous themes at the heart of Uklański's practice. They combine references to the legacy of postwar painting with a more pop sensibility derived from the blood-soaked violence of cinema history. While these works offer numerous historical and allegorical references, they could easily be unified under the title Bloodworks.”
Published on the occasion of Piotr Uklański's exhibition at Dallas Contemporary, from September to December 2014.
Piotr Uklański (born 1968 in Warsaw) as emerged on the New York art scene in the mid-90s with an emblematic artwork, the Untitled (Dance Floor)—a sculpture that integrates the legacy of minimalism with the blurring of art and entertainment that characterizes the current era.
Dividing his time between New York and Warsaw, Uklański has constructed a diverse body of work that exploits as many types of media (sculpture, photography, collage, performance, and film) as it promiscuously absorbs cultural references. His work has been internationally exhibited in various contexts including the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, The 50th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2003, the 26th Sao Paolo Biennale 2004, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Kunsthalle Basel, Wiener Seccession, and Palazzo Grassi in Venice.
