Mala Gallery, Warsaw, 8, Zamkowy Sq.
Opening April 27, 18.00 h
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Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
The mysteries of simple tales
It is very likely that photographs of Pawel Zak might be made beyond time. Thus at the very beginning an element inherent in photography - recording of time - is being questioned.
Looking at these pictures does not give us any hint as to when they could be made - although their sepia tone directs our impressions towards distant past. But perhaps it is some quibble the artist uses to cover up tracks that would lead to some starting point. Actually, Pawel is not interested in what seems to be attributed to photography - recording of some more or less important moments of our lives. Pawel Żak creates the world of his own which he takes over into his photography by means of a few elements. In this world of pure pictorial poetry there are not any computers, hi-tec cameras - all that technological tumult.
Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
The individual photographs are marked with great restraint and elegance, they remind us rare graphic prints. From these photographic pictures there are sometimes emerging fruits so very realistic that they are hard to recognize (a fragment of apple, a pear). These fruits are juxtaposed in geometrical configurations with a stone, sand, pieces of wood. These apparently static compositions make a scene of very delicate tensions. They diferentiate between transitoriness of living things and something that seems to be eternal.
Some scenes force us to think about hour-glass with grains of sand running down, lighted by veiled sun which is being carried away to the other world. There is some mysicism of seclusion and mystery.
Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
The other group of photographs deals with the world of artificial toys for children. Plastic horses, teddy bears, rubber dolls, pigs, little horses in strange mysterious configurations sometimes make animal pyramids - the motif so readily employed recently in contemporary art. Another time these toys become an element of the whole composition underlining simultanously their strongly individual character. Adequatly exposed in their confrontation with other objects they become individualised and defend themselves against a hasty unification. Perhaps in different situations we would not notice them at all.
The whole world contained in the "archeological" pictures of Pawel Zak reminds us about the childhood world, nevertheless it also cumulates some mysteries which we perhaps will never be able to uncover - even in our fully adult life.
Marek Grygiel
Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
Pawel Zak
born 1965
address: 05-420 Jozefow, ul. Laskowa 2
tel.: (0-22) 78952651986 - 93 studied social sciences in the Warsaw University. Graduated from the Higher School of Photography in 1993. Member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers from 1995.
Selected individual exhibitions:1994 - Home and Garden, Antoni Rzasa Gallery, Zakopane, Poland
Selected collective exhibitions:
1993 - Dyplom '93', Stara Galeria ZPAF, Warsaw
1995 - Polish Photography, Rome
1996 - Konfrontacje Fotograficzne, Gorzow Wielkopolski (1st prize)
1997 - Poza reklama, Stara Galeria ZPAF, Warsaw
1997 - Fotografia '97', Palac Sztuki, Cracow
1998 - Fotografia '98', Palac pod Baranami, Cracow
1998 - European Photography Contest, Vevey, Switzerland (Prix Broncolor de la lumiere)
1999 - Po drugiej stronie... Malwina Wieczorek, Kostas Kiritsis, Pawel Zak, Photography Museum Siauliai, LithuaniaHis works are in private collections in Poland, France and Norway.
Pawel Zak - Mala Gallery, Warsaw, May 1999
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