http://obieg.pl/teksty/18113

Wojciech Gilewicz, born in 1974 in Bilgoraj, Poland. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan (1994-1996) and then in Warsaw, where in 1999 he earned a degree in painting (with an additional degree in photography). Lives and works in Warsaw and New York.

In his works, which usually combine all these disciplines, Gilewicz explores the blurring of distinctions between reality and its artistic representation. A frequent motif of his practice is the replacing of elements of the real world with their painterly replicas. Gilewicz’s paintings pretend to be fragments of walls, windowsills, pavements, and for an unaware viewer are utterly indistinguishable from the originals. Sometimes the artist ‘corrects reality’ by placing ‘patch’ paintings over dents or holes in a wall. The spectator is able to find the pieces, hidden in the urban tissue by the artist, with the help of specially prepared maps or films documenting the painting process. Gilewicz usually leaves the paintings for a long time in their public-space locations, deliberately exposing them to the effect of sunlight, rain, wind or the human factor. In his practice Gilewicz demonstrates the immense power of the painting medium that is able to perfectly imitate reality, while at the same time, in a way, denying the meaningfulness of painting, because his pictures remain invisible. Gilewicz’s paintings are hyperrealistic and non-representational at the same time – they perfectly imitate fragments of reality but when taken out of the reality context and transferred to the gallery, they become purely abstract.

Wojciech Gilewicz is also the author of the photographic series Them started in 2002. This series is based on illusion – using graduation filter and double exposure, Gilewicz creates his own look-alike, twin brother, his alter ego and looks at himself through their eyes arranging situations that, seemingly ordinary and everyday, in reality never took place. The traditional photographic techniques used here do not allow for the two characters to get close or touch each other. They work, travel, rest together, they are always together but separate at the same time, divided by an insurmountable distance. The resulting situations are full of psychological tension, alluding to a search for identity and a sense of loneliness, alienation and unfulfillment.The Them series photographs can be read on many different levels of interpretation – as a present-day version of the Narcissus story, as a narrative about melancholy, or as homoerotic love.

EDUCATION

1999 Master’s Degree in Painting, Minor in Photography

1996 – 1999 Academy of Fine Arts Painting Department Warsaw, Poland

1994 – 1996 Academy of Fine Arts Painting Department Poznan, Poland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selected)

2010 Entropia Gallery Infinity, Wroclaw, Poland

2009 Lubelskie Towarzystwo Zachety Sztuk Pieknych, Lublin, Poland

2009 Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2008 Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, USA

2007 Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland

2007 Museum of Fine Arts, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

2007 BWA Gallery Revitalisations, Sanok, Poland

2006 – 2007 Entropia Gallery The Aporia of Painting, Wroclaw, Poland

2005 TR Warszawa, Warsaw, Poland

2005 Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2005 WAA (Warsaw Artists’ Action) Them, Warsaw, Poland

2004 Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe, Paris, France

2002 Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland

2001 Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle / Laboratorium Gallery City – Estate – Studio –

Apartment, Warsaw, Poland

2000 Biala Gallery Lublin, Poland

1999 Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)

2010 ISCP Gallery There Has Been No Future, There Will Be No Past New York, USA

2010 Bunkier Sztuki Kilkanascie koanow na (nie)istnienie, Cracow, Poland

2009 appendix2 Like a Rolling Stone 2, Warsaw, Poland

2009 castillo/corrales Hello Goodbye Thank You Again, Paris, France

2009 Museum of Contemporary Art BELGRADE: NONPLACES. Art in public space, Belgrade, Serbia

2009 Aspen Art Museum Monitaur, Aspen, USA

2009 MoBY (Museums of Bat Yam) Factory, Bat Yam, Israel

2009 Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu Lucim lives on, Torun, Poland

2009 Zendai Museum of Modern Art Starting Point: Intrude Art & Life 366, Shanghai, China

2009 Studio BWA Hidden, Wroclaw, Poland

2009 SculptureCenter In Practice, New York, USA

2008 Istituto Polacco di Roma Transfert Gallerie Polacche a Roma #6, Roma, Italy

2008 BWA Gallery Hidden, Zielona Gora, Poland

2008 Plumbers’ Hall Around the Coyote, Chicago, USA

2008 BWA Gallery External artists. OUT OF STH, Wroclaw, Poland

2008 Biala Gallery Remont generalny, Lublin, Poland

2008 Pianissimo Distortion of an Unendurable Reality, Milan, Italy

2008 Istituto Polacco di Roma Transfert Gallerie Polacche a Roma #2, Roma, Italy

2007 appendix2 Artists Recommend Artists, Warsaw, Poland

2007 Museum of Art in Lodz Multi-way Street annex to the exhibition Beautiful Losers, Lodz, Poland

2007 Paul Robeson Galery Imago: The Drama of Self-Portraiture In Recent Photography, Newark, USA

2007 Zacheta National Gallery of Art / Kordegarda Gallery Here a Change Occurs, Warsaw, Poland

2006 Real Art Ways POZA, Hartford, USA

2006 Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia Love and Democracy, Gdansk, Poland

2006 LiveBox at Ravenswood Space, Place & Interface, Chicago, USA

2006 Zacheta National Gallery of Art On Their Own, Warsaw, Poland

2003 National Museum / Krolikarnia, Warsaw, Poland

2002 Bunkier Sztuki, Look at me / Spojrz na mnie, Cracow, Poland

2001 BWA Gallery Goscinna Pracownia Malarstwa Leona Tarasewicza goscinnie w Galerii BWA

w Zielonej Gorze, Zielona Gora, Poland

2010 Reina Sophia National Museum Capitalismus / Les Rencontres Internationales, Madrid, Spain

2009 Pompidou Center Capitalismus / Les Rencontres Internationales, Paris, France

2008 West Germany A snake on a Tree, Berlin, Germany

2008 Monkey Town A snake on a Tree, New York, USA

2008 Foksal Gallery Noc Muzeow, Warsaw, Poland

2008 White Box DiVA (Digital & Video Art), New York, USA

AWARDS, GRANTS, RESIDENCES (selected)

2010 National Art Studio Residency, Seoul, Korea

2010 National Museum of Contemporary Art Grant, Seoul, Korea

2010 UNESCO-Aschberg Grant, Paris, France

2010 LMCC (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) Residency, New York, USA

2010, 2008 IAM (The Adam Mickiewicz Institute) Grant, Poland

2009 TAV (Taipei Artist Village) Residency, Taipei, Taiwan

2008 Zendai MoMA Residency, Shanghai, China

2008 ISCP (International Studio and Curatorial Program) Residency, New York, USA

2007 Mloda Polska Grant, Poland

2006, 2004, 2001 Ministry of Culture Grant, Poland

2005 Galichnik Art Residency, Macedonia

2004 Fondation Deutsch de la Meurthe Residency, Paris, France

2004 Fundacja Kultury Grant, Poland

1999 Master’s Degree with honors

Kilkanascie koanow na (nie)istnienie, Poland 2010

ING Bank Collection Fundacja Sztuki Polskiej ING, Warsaw, Poland 2010

Polish Street Art Klucze, Warsaw, Poland 2010

Art Pride. Polish Gay Art Abiekt.pl, Warsaw, Poland 2010

BELGRADE: NONPLACES / art in public space Salon of the Museum of Contemporary Art and public space, Belgrade, Serbia 2009

Factory Bat Yam Museums of Art, Israel 2009

● Wojciech Gilewicz Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland 2009

● Oni/Them Wojciech Gilewicz Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland 2009

5 TM Centrum Rzezby Polskiej, Oronsko, Poland 2009

Artibus, Transfert Gallerie Polacche a Roma #6, Istituto Polacco di Roma, Italy 2008

Artysci zewnetrzni. OUT OF STH BWA Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland 2008

Remont Generalny Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland 2008

Entropia, Transfert Gallerie Polacche a Roma #2, Istituto Polacco di Roma, Italy 2008

Transgrsja wyobrazni Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland 2008

POZA Real Art Ways, Hartford, USA 2008

New Phenomena in Polish Art after 2000 Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw,

● Wojciech Gilewicz Revitalisations BWA Gallery, Sanok/Warsaw, Poland 2007/2010

● Wojciech Gilewicz The Aporia of Painting (DVD + booklet) Entropia Gallery, Wroclaw, Poland 2007

Multi-way Street annex to the exhibition Beautiful Losers. Contemporary Art and Street Culture Museum of Art in Lodz, Poland 2007

Imago: The Drama of Self-Portraiture In Recent Photography Paul Robeson Gallery, Newark, USA 2007

Binary Cities: Lodz – Warsaw Galeria Manhattan, Lodz; MCKiS, Warsaw, Poland 2006

Tekstylia bis. Słownik młodej polskiej kultury Korporacja Ha!art, Cracow, Poland 2006

Love and democracy Centre for Contemporary Art Laznia, Gdansk, Poland 2006

On Their Own Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland 2006

V/1 Supermarket Sztuki Tolerate me! Warsaw, Poland 2005

● Wojciech Gilewicz Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland 2005/2010

● Them (CD) WAA (Warsaw Artists’ Action), Warsaw, Poland 2005

● Wojciech Gilewicz Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland 2002

Cyklop Nr. 8 Galeria i Muzeum Fotografii Cyklop, Gdansk, Poland 2001

Biala 1985 – 2000 Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland 2001

Pozawydzialwe przeginanie w kierunku mozliwości otwarcia oczu na otoczenie swiatlo nature i medytacje sztuki Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland 2000

Slask kopalnia tematow Upper Silesian Culture Center, Katowice, Poland 1999

WORKS IN COLLECTIONS (selected)

Frac Limousin, Limoges, France

Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

Lubelskie Towarzystwo Zachety Sztuk Pieknych, Lublin, Poland

ING Bank, Warsaw, Poland

Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia

MoBY (Museum of Bat Yam), Bat Yam, Israel

Dolnoslaskie Towarzystwo Zachety Sztuk Pieknych, Wroclaw, Poland

Zendai MoMA, Shanghai, China

Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

Museum of Fine Arts, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

Udział biorą: Paweł Althamer, Wojtek Bąkowski, Marcin Berdyszak, Agata Bogacka, Wojtek Doroszuk, Edward Dwurnik, Ryszard Grzyb, Izabela Gustowska, Ela Jabłońska, Zuzanna Janin, Paweł Jarodzki, Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Zofia Kulik, Zbigniew Libera, Agata Michowska, Joanna Milewicz, Jarosław Modzelewski, Dorota Podlaska, Józef Robakowski, Jadwiga Sawicka, Julita Wójcik.

Więcej informacji na: www.bwa.olsztyn.pl

autor: Anna Diduch
źródło: “Dziennik” dodatek “Kultura”, 2 października 2009 r., str. 31.

autor: Agnieszka Kowalska
źródło: “Gazeta Wyborcza” dodatek “Co Jest Grane”, 25 września-1 październiaka 2009 r., str.28.

autor: Stach Szabłowski
źródło: “Dziennik” dodatek “Kultura”, 9 stycznia 2009 r., str. 9.

autor: Stach Szabłowski
źródło: “Dziennik” dodatek “Kultura”, 12 września 2008 r, str. 43.