BEYOND TIME AND SPACE
Retrospective exhibition of paintings, graphics, drawings and photography by Artur Skowron.
Vernissage on September 13, 2023 at 6 p.m.
The opening of the exhibition will be graced by a special guest artist from Poland, Anna Maria Adamiak, an opera, operetta and musical singer.
The exhibition is open until October 20, 2023.
Polish – Slavic Center, 177 Kent Street, Brooklyn, NY 11222
Curator of the exhibition – Janusz Skowron (Arthur’s father)
Aleksandra Madej – BEYOND TIME AND SPACE
What is really certain in life? CHANGE! Nothing beyond it is given to us forever. Everything changes. No moment will repeat itself once again. Time passes and we with it. However, it is change that is the salt of life, adds flavor, shape and color to it. Although elusive and necessary, it is possible to record and retain it with the help of art.
A good artist notices with a sensitive eye and then notes his observations and experiences. It gives them a specific form, defined by the framework and limitations of the chosen technique. This is how transience is recorded. This is how Arthur Skowron described the world and its changeability in his art.
Change of technique and technique of change – artistic delight over the world
Arthur Skowron was an extraordinary artist. He was constantly on the move, following new paths and discovering new trails along the path of empiricism and artistic experimentation. His artistic output consists of works that can be admired at this exhibition. Travel Floryda They were made in various techniques – from classical painting, through drawing, to photography. In each of them, the artist used an individual language of form and content to best present a specific issue.
In painting, he drew on color and interpenetrating spots, which together created suggestions of familiar shapes and real spaces. In the drawing, the line was full of life – dynamic, searching for and describing what was within its framework. In photography, on the other hand, he willingly captured frames-slices of reality – fragments of places or figures (including sensual female figures). Each technique gave him the opportunity to create and present the uniqueness of the world.
Multiplicity in unity – a creative and variable approach to style
Many artists stick faithfully to one particular trend, honing their skills and means of expression within it. In Arthur’s work, however, we can easily find a multitude of trends and inspirations, which found individual interpretation in his works.
Realistic elements coexist with those bordering on surrealism and abstraction. Strong expression is no stranger to his works. Choosing the right style was not only to express artistic search and constitute a form of experiment or test of one’s own abilities. The right choice of technique and style made it possible to properly show the selected theme: the unbridled power of nature, the changeable nature of the fish so favored by the artist, the complex depth of man and his mysteries – with his spirituality and physicality. The style simultaneously became an expression of the artist’s temperament and revealed the essence of a given subject.
Variability of the subject – micro and macro worlds of the artist
In Arthur’s work there is no room for monothematicity. It is replaced by a multitude of threads and issues, which expresses great curiosity and hunger for the world. Magnetic portraits attract with a strong gaze aimed straight at the viewer’s eyes or with a furtive, fleeting glance. Regardless of whether they are painted self-portraits, representations of loved ones or photographic images of women – the individuality of each character, full of life, emotions and strength, shines through them. The artist plays with form – sometimes he presents the whole silhouette, sometimes he hides it in compositional understatements or decides on expressive deformations. All this to tell the story of the hero, to show him in the context and given reality. A special place in his creative output is occupied by landscapes – sometimes closer to realism, other times with a strongly surreal-oneiric basis, sometimes with an almost literary tint, helping to connect the world of words and images. Unforgettable impressions are provided by his sea compositions (including the Seascapes series), often balancing on the border between landscape and abstraction. They show not only the fascination with the element of water, but also the painter’s search for color and stains, which create a real dynamic of change on the canvases. They reflect the power of the element and the unspeakable beauty of nature, seen through the subjective eye of the artist and processed through the prism of individual emotions and memories.
Paintings, drawings and photographs by Artur Skowron – fragments of reality that build the WHOLE
Arthur Skowron’s compositions are subjective visions of the world. At this exhibition, we can see for a moment how a talented and multidimensional artist perceived it – for a moment rejecting his own tracing papers, imaginations and emotions. His works, like film frames, are fragments of a story, fragments of reality limited in format, describing the changing real and artistic world. Together, however, they give an overview of the whole. They show a specific man – an artist, his story and how beautiful the whole surrounding reality was in his eyes.
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ARTHR SKOWRON BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Skowron was born in Starachowice, Poland in 1982. He died in New York in 2022. Polish-American artist, musician, poet and educator, living in New York since 1990. He graduated with honors from the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan (2000). In the years 2000 – 2005 he studied art and artistic education at Queens College, then geology (2005-2007) obtaining teaching qualifications, and then taught in New York high schools for several years. In 2010, he received an MA in Arts Education from Queens College. Arthur presented his works at over forty individual and over one hundred and sixty group exhibitions, including in the United States, Poland, Germany, France, South Korea and China. He won several artistic awards and distinctions: Ralph J. Sansone Scholarship (2000), Alexander Medal 2000, PSC Scholarship (2001) and a medal for the best oil painting at the Artsplash Salon 2009. Arthur was a member of Young Talents Group, Polish-American Photographic Club, Emotionalist Artists Group and Rockaway Artist’s Alliance. He was a participant in the National Painting Workshop in Kolbuszowa, Poland (2001). He practiced easel painting, wall painting (murals), graphics, illustration, drawing and black and white photography. Fluent in both English and Polish, he translated texts and poetry. In 2010, he also published a book of poetry, “Words and Pictures”, in English. For many years, he conducted courses for the Polish community to prepare for the American citizenship exam, and worked with both Polish children and seniors. He supported dozens of charity auctions with his art.
Arthur’s passion was music. He learned to play the piano with prof. Jerzy Stryjniak at the New York Conservatory of Music and with Nina Kuźma-Sapiejewska. He has performed, among others, in Steinway Hall, CAMI Hall, Consulate of the Republic of Poland, The Kosciuszko Foundation and Lincoln Center. For many years he was organist in New York churches. In 2012, he composed music for several of his poems, which he recorded with the band in the studio. Another of his passions was fishing.
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Anna Maria Adamiak. Opera, operetta and musical singer, actress, teacher, music therapist. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture, National Heritage and Sport. Keep expanding your repertoire. She moves easily in different styles and genres of music.
She is a laureate and finalist of many vocal and interpretation competitions. She collaborates with orchestras, bands, instrumentalists and actors both in Poland and abroad.
Her repertoire includes works from baroque to contemporary times.
In October 2014, Piwnica pod Baranami premiered an album with songs written especially for her by Andrzej Zarycki – composer and music director of Ewa Demarczyk, associated with Piwnica Pod Baranami for years.
