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Exhibition: "Henryk Musiałowicz – Odnowa(Renew) - Maciej Cieślak - Od nowa (Anew)"

Exhibition: "Henryk Musiałowicz – Odnowa(Renew) - Maciej Cieślak - Od nowa (Anew)"
Start date 2013-06-13
Start time 00:00
Ending date 2013-07-19
Location Galeria "Gardzienice", ul. Grodzka 5a

Gardzienice galery invites for an exhibition entitled „Odnowa. Od nowa (Renew. Anew)”.

The exhibition “Renew. Anew.” is a meeting of two artists, two different worlds. There is a gap of fifty years between them, fifty years of history and experience. Henryk Musiałowicz has devoted his whole life to painting. He was an active member of the Polish artistic circle but at the same time he gradually isolated himself from it. For Maciej Cieślak, photography is a passion which he keeps developing.
Both artists represent different ways of fulfilling their artistic life. One of them is an outsider locked up in his studio; the other is a successful businessman who devotes his free time to photography.
One could say that the medium of photography allows obtaining more definite desired visual effect quicker. When one observes photo sessions with Musiałowicz, however, it becomes obvious that the creative process is the same. It requires total commitment, engaging yourself in the task.

Hours of observation, snapshots, hours of tickles and bold strokes of brush…. A timeless expanse appears. That is how ageless art is created such as Musiałowicz’s works which will always be relevant owing to the subjects they concern and their modern form.
The age difference between Cieślak and Musiałowicz is noteworthy. It allows us to try to prove some theses concerning art in our lives: Is intergenerational communication based on art even possible? Is the language of art universal?
The answer is: of course! Cieślak’s photographs are a kind of visual narration of Musiałowicz’s works but most of all they are integral beings in dialogue with them. The same emotions become visible in both artists’ works. Viewers can see concern with a fate of another human being, taking notice of him or her and treating him or her as someone exceptional, important. After all, it is an inherent need of a person to prove again and again that his or her existence isn’t pointless and to preserve memory of oneself.

At the exhibition we can experience a vast range of artistic abilities of both Musiałowicz and Cieślak. Henryk Musiałowicz is presenting his most famous paintings belonging to the great series as well as works made on paper created over a span of the last twenty years. Exquisite sculptures, totem poles and banners form almost sacred sphere with the artist’s works and supplement the exhibition in a unique way. Maciej Cieślak’s photographs provide the chance to meet the artist himself by looking at his portraits ad by watching the photo stories. Sylwia Mańko


Henryk Musiałowicz was born in 1914 w Gniezno. In 1936 he started his studies at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts at the Department of Painting under the supervision of Professor Leonard Pękalski. He received a graduation diploma in 1948 in the studio of Professor Stefan Kowarski. After the war he bound his private life and professional career to Warsaw. His works have been displayed at more than 100 solo and 200 collective exhibitions all over the world, in such cities as Geneva, New York, Copenhagen, Milan and Rome. In Poland, one of the largest exhibitions was organized in the Warsaw Rising Museum under the title “Remembered, saved, unobliterated: war and rising 1939-1945.” In 2002 the National Museum in Poznań organized a large retrospective exhibition of Musiałowicz’s works. The artist is also a winner of numerous prestigious awards and honourable mentions among which there are: the Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis. He is a member of international artistic organizations: European Society of Culture SEC and the International Association of Arts AIAP.

Maciej Cieślak – photographer, physicist, financial advisor. His area of work is artistic photography which he complements with other visual format such as photojournalism and documentary. The topic he raises most often in his works is human being, his or her experiences and relationship with the world. He feels compelled to travel to remote places. He has graduated from Photography Study Centre of ZPAF (Association of Polish Art Photographers) in Warsaw. He studies physics at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and at the University of Heidelberg. He holds a doctoral degree in nuclear physics. He is also a graduate of PhD studies at the Warsaw School of Economics. Cieślak has had numerous solo exhibitions and is the winner of the 2010National Geographic photography competition. Member of the c Association of Polish Art Photographers; currently based in Warsaw.

The exhibition is curated by Zuzanna Zubek-Gańska and Jolanta Musiałowicz;
Co-organisers: Jolanta Musiałowicz, Sylwia Mańko

Musiałowicz is a painter and an outsider. He chose creating in solitude as it gives him better chance to focus on the artistic process, the opportunity which he values enormously. His works have been presented at over one hundred individual exhibitions and he has participated in around 250 national and international group exhibitions. All important Polish museums and numerous European, American and Japanese museums and art galleries own art pieces by Musiałowicz.


Musiałowicz has submitted his whole life to painting. Rather than in the outside world he is more interested in inner existence, emotions and experiences of individual beings. As an artist, in his works Musiałowicz unswervingly provides documentation of emotional growing in maturity, continuously changing in intensity, persistently fighting to steal from life moments of silence and the chance to focus. Musiałowicz’s art contains a certain biological primal element that grants it an air of sacricity. It’s a boundless area of associations, analogies and relations proving how relative time is and how distinct seemingly antagonistic cultures are. Since the early 1980s (marking another turning point in the Artist’s life) in his studio in the village of Cieńsza (in Puszcza Biała near Pułtusk) Musiałowicz creates new cycles referring to surrounding wilderness:"Birth of Earth", "Mother Nature" "Pillars of Reflection". Inspired by Nature as a source of the highest emotions and rapture, they .give comfort by looking for order and a secret of life.
"Pillar" series have become an epitome of new symbols that the artist found appealing but they also continued ideas of primeval magical, ritual art aspiring to portrait the earliest beginnings. These qualities cause unabated interest for ‘the first alphabet of art" which, in this case, is folk art in perspective of its earliest beginnings.

Musiałowicz’s art is a timeless bridge joining countless distinct traditions, cultures and achievements. It moves the viewer with its grandeur and solemnity with ancient element unthreatened by anything. After experiencing dialogue with the artist’s paintings we feel cleansed, renewed, and a bit nobler. His art shows the way to the world of meanings which don’t give in to words, reminds us about something extremely important beyond the spoken language that the artist wants us to understand.

The exhibition is open until 19 July 2013.
Mon. – Fri., 11:00 am-6:00 pm

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