11—27/04/2025
exhibition
Artemij Kopach
Untitled
- The decision to choose an artistic path as the one one you want to pursue and dedicate yourself to in life can be a moment and a never-ending process. It is a plan that requires determination and resistance to other tempting perspectives offered by the world. It is a state associated with renunciation and uncertainty, permanently confronting the artist with himself — his work, the art world, but above all his audience. Creation involves constant decision-making, both with regard to ideas and emotions, and the choice of the optimum form capable of best expressing them.
- It is a path filled with questions and attempts at answers, with satisfaction and uncertainty, fulfilment and a sense of longing. Mature artistic work is not a constant — its power and persuasiveness lie in motion, in the search for new forms of expression. It is a continuous deepening, broadening, and sublimation of how the world is perceived and communicated — both to it and for it. Along this path, there is a unique point in time — the moment of an artist’s debut. A result and convergence of favourable external circumstances, but above all, of the artist’s conviction of their own readiness to engage in dialogue, confront art, and ultimately to reveal themselves — their sensitivity and skill.
- This thought of an inevitable moment in every artist’s journey has accompanied Artemij Kopach from the very beginning of his artistic path. It fuelled his determination to refine his technique in the service of expression and depth. The vision of a future debut pushed him into an intense inward search, a constant observation of self — a kind of artistic self-dissection. The medium of sculpture, which he has chosen, seems particularly well-suited and potentially fulfilling for these inner processes.
- Artemij Kopach is a student at the sculpture studio of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His interests focus on the human being, on striving to depict — through the sculptural medium — the most complete image and synthesis of human nature. He pays particular attention to the study of the head, consistently pursuing mastery of his craft and the ceramic process of sculpture. At the exhibition, this process will be presented through a series of sculptures, head studies, and self-portraits by the artist. We will witness the progression from the initially conceived form through increasingly refined iterations. Artemij, focused on achieving a form that satisfies him as final, constantly confronts and overcomes manual and technological limitations while simultaneously striving for the deepest possible expression. This process — time-consuming and painstaking — does not yield noticeable progress immediately. It teaches patience, determination, and the skill of meticulous self-observation. At the exhibition, we, invited by the Artist, become companions and co-participants in the creation of his sculptures.
- Artemij Kopach’s debut at U–jazdowski is the outcome of an artistic initiative by the Artistic Sports Association (Artystyczny Związek Zawodowy), as part of the Opening Up! cycle. The ASA’s action — with its multilayered and critical potential — sparked a range of discussions about the role of the curator, the cultural institution environment, and the mechanisms and factors that determine who, when, and by what process gets the opportunity to emerge, debut, and enter the “art market.” Artemij won a series of competitions and, at the same time, a debut at one of Poland’s most important contemporary art institutions. This unusual, unprecedented path caught him by surprise in the midst of his creative development, fulfilling his dream of a first exhibition while, at the same time, depriving him of the comfort of choosing the moment of his own readiness. It is a kind of “being caught” in the process of artistic maturation — one that nevertheless allows us to see Artemij Kopach as an artist of great sensitivity, self-awareness, and an exceptional ability to express both through the artistic language of sculpture.
- Curator
- Krystyna Różańska-Gorgolewska
