The exhibition showcases the latest series of paintings by Jarosław Fliciński, completed over the past year in his studio in Zawada, near Nałęczów. Although created in 2024, some of the canvases have a longer history—they are the result of successive layers applied to works begun during the artist’s earlier residencies in Esteval and Brejo, Portugal. Like his previous series, this one is deeply tied to the place in which the artist worked—the atmosphere of the studio, the light, and that which is felt but unseen.

What guides the artist in his creative process? Intuition or reason? A whim of the moment or a carefully thought-out plan? Jarosław Fliciński invites us into his world, where answers to these questions intertwine into a complex knot of emotions, gestures, and decisions. His paintings are not illustrations of any theory nor attempts to recreate reality—they are traces of a process that is as fascinating as the work itself. As the artist says, They came to life slowly, in their own time throughout the summer, while my thoughts flowed on a more or less regular course alongside, and things just happened. Sometimes it took many months before the moment arrived—the moment of the one final touch—that completed the whole.

Fliciński admits that during the process, the painting guides him, but ultimately it is the artist who decides when the work is finished, giving it the full context in which it is meant to exist. It is he who sets the next blank canvas before himself. Fliciński’s art is a constant balance between the conscious and the unconscious, between what is intended and what simply happens.

Sonia Witak

This summer, an old friend of mine—a painter—visited my studio and immediately turned all my paintings sideways, positioning them horizontally. He said, ‚Look, landscapes’ (he’s painted landscapes his entire life). What could I do? I just smiled. Everyone sees what they want to see. After he left, I returned to the studio and slowly set them all back upright. A painting, when horizontal, becomes a view to the ‚outside’; when vertical, it transforms back into a portrait, an image ‚inward,’ and that’s how I always position them—quite naturally.

Jarosław Fliciński