Catalogue dedicated to the Polish painter and conceptual artist, featuring his most recent works, an essay by Maria Brewińska, and an interview. The publication reviews some of Bujnowski's key concepts, such as painting as a physical object and its concomitant deconstruction, the centrality of time and the question of futurology, and the randomness of existence.
Following Rafal Bujnowski's exhibition, “May 2066”, at the National Gallery of Art in Zachęta curated by Maria Brewińska (11 June-21 August, 2016), this catalogue features the recent and highly varied works produced by the artist—a video about a man he met in a fitness club and series of paintings and drawings. It includes an essay by Brewińska—“Future (Im)perfect”—as well as a conversation with the artist. Key concepts behind the artist's process such as the engagement with painting as a physical object and its concomitant deconstruction, the centrality of time and the question of futurology, and the randomness of existence, are unravelled and discussed.
Published following the eponymous exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Zachęta, Poland, from June 11 to August 21, 2016.
Rafal Bujnowski (born 1974 in Wadowice, lives and works in Cracow) is one of the most radical and intelligent contemporary painters. His works are a brilliant blend of two seemingly remote artistic disciplines—painting and conceptual art. The theme of the Bujnowski's successive projects—paintings, videos, objects or actions—are the conventions linked to the social functioning of the artist and the works of art, as well as the conventions present in the art itself. Rafal's paintings are an example of fully aware conceptual painting—his objects, disclosing and changing meaning depending on the surrounding in which they are placed, are peculiar models of an artwork. They reveal a tension between the process of artistic production and consumption. At the same time, the unquestionable and outstanding visual talent of the artist causes his works to be treated as “self-sufficient works”—very good paintings, to put it simply.
