Intermediate States

Antoni Starowieyski consistently develops the same themes in his painting, devoted to the observation of light, space, landscape, architecture, and suspension in time. A corridor, a passage under a viaduct, an old railway carriage standing off to the side—these are some of the motifs also familiar from Starowieyski's earlier works. He strives to observe them intensely and develop variations of their representation, altering details, shades of color, and angles of perspective to extract from this meditation the closest possible approximation to the uniqueness of the moment and the silence discreetly woven into the outskirts of inhabited places.

Although formally different, the abstract horizon images complement the poetics of being outside of time and place, as if reflected in a mirror of delicate, complex emotion, an inner sense of being and solace. Starowieyski's incredible sensitivity to color allows him to compose images that are simultaneously clear with saturated hues and bring a pleasant peace, like a slow, measured breath.

The exhibition's title suggests a fascinating moment of change or suspension, which lies at the heart of metaphysical reflections on time. A still oil painting on canvas becomes a penetrating observation of time, precisely through its focus on the arrested flow of change on the one hand, and on the other, through a use of color and composition that transports the viewer to their own experiences, reminding them of the temperature of a summer twilight or the silence of a marsh stretching almost to the horizon.