Mala Gallery
8, Zamkowy Sq., Warsaw (Old Town)
April 5-29, 2005

 

 

Stanisław Kulawiak - Asymmetrical landscapes

ASSUMPTION that literal character of surrounding reality is a kind of limitation for Polish photography and that only recently it made again a contact with this reality seems to be absolutely groundless. Stanisław Kulawiak who has been realizing presented here series for already over ten years proves that documentary record can be also an artistic, individual creation. Admiration for "objectivity" of photography which thanks to the school of Bechers and their epigones entered into spaces of art museums in no way depreciates years long explorations in this area that has been realized without publicity and media noise. Stanisław Kulawiak who lives away from large city centres makes his pictures in astonishingly consistent way. These photographs present views of commonplace things and objects from the artist’s closest environment. They contain a large dose of truth and authenticity. These things are apparently trifling – but they are filled with meanings, they not only keep a „shape of thingÓ but also communicate a certain mood. They contain power of aesthetic impact that relies mostly on simplicity of framing and programmed, controlled detached attitude of the photographer. Perhaps this way of realization makes it impossible to associate these pictures with any ideology or to submit them to any mystification.

The above words that accompanied the presentation of Stanisław Kulawiak’s works in the 4th, the last published in printed form issue of Fototapeta, are still binding, because these pictures have timeless dimension. They are documentary pictures - very much so. But they cannot be clearly associated with any particular period. It doesn’t matter if we were looking at them 30 years earlier or later, they still will be the same. Nothing would be „addedÓ to them nor nothing could be removed from them. It seems like the artist succeeded in introducing a sort of relativisation of time. But even if it was not his intention still we are left with very good photographs that deny passing. It means that they play a role that is basic for photography and with which photography is mainly associated. They do not record a „decisive momentÓ or any event, they do not relate anything. They just are. That makes their impact so powerful.

Marek Grygiel

Stanisław Kulawiak was born in 1954. After finishing Elementary School in Bobrowniki and High Scool in Ostrzeszów he studied at Department of Electricity of the Mining and Metallurgical Academy in Cracow from 1973 t0 1979. He started to photograph in 1974. At the beginning he run the Students' Photographic Agency and two years later he founded together with his friends the Creative Group SEM. Member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers. Many exhibitions and publications, cooperates with Publishing House KULAWIAK.

Exhibitions with the SEM Group
1976 - Akcja Próbna 1 - Kraków, AGH
1977 - Akcja Stołówka - Kraków
1977 - Akcja Ślady - Szczawnica
1978 - Akcja Próbna 2 - Wrocław, Tarnobrzeg
1978 - Moje miasto - Kraków, Poznań,
1979 - W pejzażu historii - Wrocław, Galeria Foto-Medium-Art

WIndividual exhibitions
1978 - Wystawa fotografii - Ostrzeszów
1979 - Pejzaże prawie symetryczne - Nowa Huta
1980 - Rodzice - Kraków, Jaszczurowa Galeria Fotografii
1980 - Portrety okazjonalne - Przemyśl
1981 - Wystawa fotografii z lat 1975-81 - Kraków, Galeria ZPAF
1984 - Portrety - Kraków, Galeria Foto-Video
1984 - Zwis czy nawis - Ostrzeszów, Galeria „Na Zameczku"
1985 - Trzeba tworzyć dramat - Kalisz, Teatr im. W. Bogusławskiego
1987 - Pejzaże prawie symetryczne - Wrocław
1987 - Okolice autentyzmu - Ostrzeszów
1988 - Międzynarodowa Konferencja Praw Człowieka - zapis dokumentalny - Kraków, kościół w Mistrzejowicach
1989 - Wizerunki Jana Pawła II na medalach z kolekcji ks. Jana Stachowiaka - Hamburg, Parafia Polska
1990 - 21 fotografii z USA - Wrocław
1992 - Trzy fotografie - Ostrów Wlkp., BWA
1995 - 30 x Kalisz - Tongeren, Hamm
1998 - Okolice autentyzmu - Wrocław
1999 - Portrety jazzowe - Kalisz
2001 - Die Gegend des Autentismus - Berlin
2003 - Die Gegend des Autentismus - Stuhr
2004 - Fast symmetrische Landschaften - Stuhr

Selected collective exhibitions
1981 - Od sierpnia do sierpnia - Kraków, Galeria ZPAF
1985 - Polska współczesna fotografia artystyczna - Warszawa „Zachęta"
1986 - Fotografia polska - poszukiwania 1956-85 - Praga
1989 - Międzynarodowe Biennale Sztuki - San Paulo
1990 - "De Pologne; dans et par la photo" - Castres
1991 - Nowe przestrzenie fotografii „Pomiędzy" - Wrocław

 

In FOTOTAPETA also:

• All exhibitions in Mala Gallery since 1997

 

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