Grzegorz Antoni Siembida (1984), WITHOUT TITLE, 2021.

oil, spray/canvas, 140 x 110 cm
signed and dated on the back: Siembida | 2021 | installation instructions

Grzegorz Siembida's work includes painting and painting installation. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, he received his diploma in 2009 at the Faculty of Painting in the studio of Prof. Andrzej Bednarczyk. Currently a doctoral student at the Faculty of Art of the KEN Pedagogical University in Cracow. The artist combines various inspirations in his abstract, organic compositions. Both from various areas of visual culture - from cave painting and folk art to colorism, informel and pop art; as well as from his immediate environment - his painting studio or the shabby information poles he passes on his way to it, which are a reservoir of forms and textures, and at the same time a private "living" environment. He has presented his works at the CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Hunting and Riding in Warsaw and the Polish Institute in Vienna, among others. Winner of the City of Cracow Visual Arts 2020 scholarship and winner of the 3rd Cracow Salon. He lives and works in Krakow.
A characteristic feature of Siembida's works is the collage nature of the picture plane, built on the principle of juxtaposing extremely different means of artistic expression. Their provenance oscillates between the Tasmanian gesture of the artist freely operating with a variety of tools and the rigorous rhythm of the "printer's" raster, reminiscent of the abstract works of Roy Lichtenstein. The seemingly chaotic composition contains an internal order in which each of the applied elements plays an equally important role. The balance between the uncontrolled gesture and the precisely defined stain that appears in its surroundings builds the tension and drama of the composition. Dichotomousness, moreover, manifests itself in Siembida's paintings on many levels. The sweeping spray marks, reminiscent of the hurriedly created scribbles associated with vandalism, have been blended into a flat, precise stain made with oil paint, which in turn is the equivalent of the legacy of easel painting and so-called high culture. The two extremely different means of expression found on the picture plane not only a common space of coexistence, but, above all, they were inextricably combined to form one common painting value. The tension that accompanies this clash reflects the essence of Siembida's painting, which is the confrontation of two elements that are extremely different from each other and the exploration of the potential of their coexistence. The space in Siembida's paintings is disturbed and non-obvious, at one time a fragment of the painting seems to be in the foreground, at another time the same fragment moves away into the depths, changing the perception of the entire work. This kind of vitality of the artist's paintings makes us discover new fragments, previously invisible or overlooked, every time we look at them.