​Izabela Kowalczyk

Reliefs, 2012 - 2015

 

The first Reliefs were created for the project L'Art Renouvelle le Lycée 2012, organised by the Passage de l'Art gallery. The theme - an opposition between excess and limitation - is present in my work by questioning the border between painting and spatial objects. In Reliefs I take up the theme by crossing bi-dimensional image limits and by opening them to other dimensions.

At first I replaced the usual base of my paintings (canvas on frame) by a wood board. Next I literally deepened the dissociation of the background and the form of my images.

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In the footsteps of Elsworth Kelly, I tame the path between painting and volume.

As well Eduardo Chillida's Gravitations are meeting points between the artist's graphics and sculptures.

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In my most recent spatial works, I introduce the space (the emptiness) into the matter (the fullness), searching for balance in reference to Eduardo Chillida. This process optically lightens the composition so that the elements appear like fragments of a larger whole, the empty made visible.

 

The wooden elements are bolted by small metal hinges and screws, keeping a fine separation line between them. This line functions as a drawing.

Apart from the possibility of real movement, hinges introduce into the piece an idea of wider, imaginary movement. This mental movement present in reliefs, corresponds to the transparency effects, also illusory, in my paintings.