The Sensual Matter of Pictures

Experimental treatment of artistic material allowed both Andrzej Szewczyk and Maja Kitajewska to develop their own artistic language. Their work shall be based on a balanced interest in the conceptual side of the work of art and in its sensual character. The basic element in the method of these artists is repetition. In Szewczyk's works, dozens of cut pieces of wooden crayons, pistachio shells or lead-pressed points are almost obsessively merged into strings, imagining mysterious script or unreadable writing, in composition similar to the structure of a text. Kitajewska sews canvas with sequins and glass beads, where the glow is merged with the aura of ambiguous objects. A special dimension of the work of both artists are erotic series: Szewczyk called this his works glued with pistachio shells, often painted with gold paint, on an ultramarine background, while Kitajewska's erotic works are miniatures of 18th-century classics embroidered with glass beads. In both cases, the glow of the image and its sensual matter evoke the desire, which is caused by the sight of jewels, and at the same time the curiosity of encrypted meanings.