Radosław Czarkowski

NN, from the "Covers" series, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.

Schutzer, from the "Covers" series, 2020, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm. 
Courtesy of the artist.

In paintings from the Covers series, the artist references classic works of modern art, while for the works presented in the Zielona Góra Biennale the referent is news photography. Paul Schutzer’s image of a child in a refugee camp during the Vietnam War and a photograph by an unknown author of a scene from recent violent protests in Belarus have been modified and miss captions. The author offers clues through the titles of the works, but does not explain his choice. He does not banalize, but finds in these dramatic images a point of departure for underscoring the complexity of the world. He appropriates them to voice a warning and emphasize the uniqueness of individual existence, but also explores them for formal intensity. The iconicness of the image does not prevent a radical exclusion of the portrayed. We are no longer able to care about the evil and injustice around us because media has long desensitized us to such sights.

Radosław Czarkowski (b. 1965 in Zielona Góra) studied Drawing in the class of Jarosław Kozłowski at the State College of Fine Arts (today the University of Arts) in Poznań, graduating cum laude in 1992. Co-founder and co-manager of the GI Intermedia Gallery in Zielona Góra, 1993-95 and 1997-99. Recipient of art grants from the President of Zielona Góra in 1994 and 1998. Member of the qualifying committee for the exhibition Young Generation of Polish Artists at the Polish Sculpture Centre in Orońsko, 1999. Professor in the Institute of Visual Arts at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Zielona Góra since 2010, its Deputy Director in 2012-2016, and Director since 2016. He also teaches a graduate course in Drawing and Intermedia. He has participated in, organized, and curated numerous group and solo exhibitions in Poland and abroad. His work encompasses drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, and interdisciplinary practices.