Rafał Karcz 

Like
many painters of my generation, I walk a tightrope between the figurative and the abstract. I
flirt with "realistic" paintings without restraint or
irony. My paintings combine an often nervous texture and a reduced palette with psychological forcefulness
and a clandestine atmosphere...

Source: regalart | arts galeria barcelona

We are proud to present the experimental mixed media watercolors from Polish artist Rafal Karcz. Within his multiple series of small-scale paintings, the artist examines and critiques historical truth, cultural trends particularly among the youth, and battling control/chaos within the medium of watercolors, which he uses to violate traditional assumption about what the craft can do within the viewer’s expectations.

Examples of source imagery which Karcz range from photo still taken from the anarchy/punk movement supposedly from Europe to mug shots taken of the co-directors of Phillips Gallery in downtown Salt Lake City to a still of the kidnapped Hanns-Martin Schleyer by the infamous Baader-Meinhof terrorists. Whether the original source is an appropriated press photographs from the annals of history or possibly personal snapshots from the artist’s own camera, Karcz’s magical ability to render his subjects with a loose discipline manifests a strong command of his merging of conceptual idea with a well-crafted draftsmanship that shows within each work.

Inspired by the Czech New Wave film stills, Karcz acknowledges each segment of the subculture he researches thoroughly like a visual sociologist. For example, within his work “Commando Martyr,” the artist depicts the fallen figure as the symbolic figurehead for a dying form of capitalism interwoven with the checkered past of Nazism. With merciless brushstrokes and splotches, the ascendancy of the red star in the background suggests that the turmoil of the conflict between extreme left-wing fanatics and the conservative, controlling conformists would reappear in various forms in the trends of history, whether it be the punk against yuppie or the fashionable jet-set against the impoverished folks.

Even though conflict lies at the heart of the overall works, Karcz is not simply a documentary scriptwriter. He becomes a consummate alchemist of the brush. With nearly flawless command, the artist is able to elicit impressionistic details with blurred outlines like dredged-up memories from the waste bin of alternative storytelling. Through fearless depiction of his characters, the artist’s compassion in examining the overall tenor of social movements ranging from the art gallery world to the ecstasy-using clubbers reflects a genuine concern for an attempt to figure out how different types of people interact with one another rather than falling back on the stereotypes that cultural media is dependent on for its ideas. This form of visual anthropology becomes an atlas/encyclopedia for one man’s understanding of the whole typology of humanity like the way that August Sander reflected upon his society during the twentieth century.

A series of mixed media works becomes an essay, an individual entry within the complete atlas of Karcz’s overall ambitious book of artwork in totality. This becomes a more painterly counterpart to Richter’s photographic atlas culled over the decades.

Rafal Piotr Karcz was born in 1969 in Krakow. The artist graduated from the art history department of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 1996 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, the Faculty of Industrial Design in 1999. He works as a painter and a photographer who experiments with various medias and techniques while experimenting with many techniques. He belongs to the Polish and American Societies of Pastelists. This year he received a reward during the 3rd Biennial of Pastels in Nowy Sacz. He had some individual exhibitions in Poland including Warsaw and Krakow as well as Germany at venues such as Galerie Pierogi and Galerie Born / Busse in Leipzig. While working on longer series, he exposes a chosen motive or object and uses watercolor and mixed media on many types of paper.

Source: artist

Rafał Karcz, 1969, Kraków, Poland

Studies:

1990-1996 history of art department Jagiellonian University Krakow

1994-1999 department of industrial design Acadamy of Fine arts Krakow

Individual expos:

2009 zabawki dla dorosłych / przeciwnicy; with Sylwia Górak,
Galeria BB, Wrocław

2009 Beyond the border, International Contemporary Art Fair, San Diego,
California

2009 FUCKKK KKKAPITALISM, art-project, IAO projects, Salt Lake City, Utah

2009 Lato w mieście / Summer in the city, Galeria Klementyny
Bocheńskiej, Warszawa

2009 Summer of love, Galerie Born/Busse, Lipsk,
Niemcy

2009 Key to freedom fabrik e.v. / schauraum,
Galerie Works, Niemcy

2009 Rozgryzanie malarstwa; with Karolina Szmuc, Galeria Carte
Blanche, Łódź

2009 Z klubu i kościoła; Klub Alter Ego, Szczecin

2009 Afterparty, Galerie Born/Busse, Lipsk, Niemcy

2009 various/similar similar/various, iao projects/burger company, Salt
Lake City, Utah, USA

2008 Traffic/engineering, Galerie Born/Busse, Lipsk, Niemcy

2005 CSW Solvay, Kraków

2004 Galeria Rafała Korzeniowskiego, Kraków

2003 Galeria Hotelu Elektor, Kraków

2002 Szkice architektoniczne, Galeria Politechniki Krakowskiej, Kraków

2003 Szkice i motywy architektoniczne, Galeria SARP, Kraków 



Group expos:

2009 REGALART Arts Galeria, Barcelona, Spain

2008 Blickdicht, Bollag Galleries, Zurich, Szwajcaria

2008 Geld spielt keine rolle, Galerie Born/Busse, Lipsk, Niemcy

2004 /w ramach projektu contact.by.art.pl/ CSW Solvay, Kraków