On May 26, the Museum of Lubuska Land in Zielona Góra will open an exhibition of works by Tomek Kawiak, an excellent painter, sculptor and performer who has been living in France for over half a century. The exhibition “Traces 1962-2021” will be open until September 1.
Alicja Błażyńska, a spokeswoman for the Zielona Góra museum, informed that the exhibition is retrospective. It consists of works made in various techniques: drawings, collages, sketches, photographs and installations. All of them are a kind of clues leading the viewer along the paths traveled by the artist.
“Tomek Kawiak is one of the artists who can meet almost all challenges in the field of visual arts. He is called by critics a chronicler of the 20th century. During the vernissage, which will take place on Wednesday at 5 p.m., Natasza Ziółkowska’s documentary +TATO will be shown ( TAusche TOmek)+” – added the spokeswoman.
The exhibition of Kawiak’s works will open the third decade of operation of the Nowy Wiek Gallery at the Museum of Lubuska Land in Zielona Góra.
Tom Kawiak – b. in 1943 in Lublin – he is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where in 1962-67 he studied painting and interior design. He received his diploma in 1968. In the years 1968-70 he was an assistant in the ceramics studio at the Painting Department of his alma mater. He was one of the first and most visible performers of his generation.
He is considered to be the creator of the Polish ecological happening. The action “Tomka Kawiak’s Pain”, presented in 1970, went down in the history of Polish art, during which he bandaged trees in one of the streets of Lublin, mutilated by municipal services. In the same year he went to Paris, where in 1971-73 he continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
The artist has published over a dozen albums with his paintings and sculptures. He exhibits worldwide and his work is in numerous public and private collections in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Japan, China, Korea and Australia. (PAP)