Paweł Althamer and Artur Żmijewski, Untitled - from the series "Conversations".
Mixed technique, collage, cardboard,
Dimensions: 50 x 70 cm
Work signed.
Unique
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"We are talking to Paul with paintings, this has been going on for several years now. Paintings are more capacious - more can be said" Artur Zmijewski
Artur Zmijewski and Pawel Althamer have been collaborating and befriending each other since their college days. They met in the sculpture studio of Warsaw's Academy of Fine Arts, led by Grzegorz Kowalski. Each artist deals with their own work, using different modes of expression. However, joint projects are a significant part of their artistic life. In 2017-2019, they created painterly collages in which they referenced the works of poets. The 2020 work presented at auction is from the "Conversations" series, which includes drawings created during free meetings and discussions.
Paweł Althamer. studied at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1988 to 1993. His diploma work under the direction of Grzegorz Kowalski was a sculpture titled Self-Portrait. At first he sculpted figures using simple techniques and unconventional materials, then he used metal mesh and dressed his sculptures in old clothing. The next stage of his work was devoted to the problem of loneliness, isolation and alienation. Modeling himself on spaceships, he built capsules, instruments and spacesuits with the aim of detaching himself from reality. In the mid-1990s he devoted himself to social issues mainly locating art, creativity in the world around us.
Pawel Althamer is the winner of the prestigious Vincent Van Gogh Prize, awarded by the Dutch de Broere Foundation (2004). In 2010, at the Passports of Polityka gala, he received a special award for Creator of Culture. Solo exhibitions of his works have been held at the New Museum in New York (2014), the Pompidou Center in Paris (2006) and the Secession Building in Vienna (2009), among others. In addition, his works and art projects have taken part in prestigious art festivals such as Manifesta (2000, 2014), La Biennale di Venezia (2003, 2013), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007) and Berlin Biennale (2006, 2012).
Artur Zmijewski. Born in 1966 in Warsaw, lives and works in Warsaw. Author of films, photographer. From 1990 to 1995, he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he received his diploma in the studio of Prof. Grzegorz Kowalski. In 2005, he represented Poland at the 51st International Biennale in Venice, where he showed the film 'Repetition'. He is one of the leading artists of the critical art trend, dealing with issues of the body and the Other, as well as historical trauma and the Holocaust. The protagonists of the artist's works are usually sick people, disabled people confronted with the so-called "normal", as well as people who have been thrown to the margins of society for various other reasons. In addition to documentaries, the artist's projects are usually created on the basis of a "directed documentary", in which the author arranges certain situations and then studies and observes the reactions, behavior of the characters.
