Maciej Rauch – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

• Real Magic, Magical Realism

  • The art of Maciej Rauch has been described as magical realism. That is a familiar term, comprehensible and commonly encountered. We feel safe and cosy with it, even if the magic sometimes gets more real in it than the realism.
• In Rauch’s art, however, it resounds fully and anew, magic being as literal here as realism.
  • In an age of widely accepted artistic mediocrity, at a time when it is common for artists to make use of the achievements of modern technology, Rauch sticks to traditional painting technique, and astonishingly so. Through this hard-to-master medium, he tells us about a world of magic and fantasy. We fall in his trap as soon as, thrilled by the attractive visuality, we discover that these enticing representations have been painstakingly hand-painted. Produced in the course of a meticulous process by a painter who creates fantastic worlds and visions through a patient struggle with the difficult matter of the canvas and oil paint. Let us not be deceived by the apparent ease of the saturated colours, glimmering spaces, or beautiful faces. After all, there is also sadness in them, a sense of incompatibility, or loneliness. The world that Rauch visualizes is carefully thought-out. It is not just a riot of colours and shapes, figures, animals, and planets. There are also many iconographic references here, a lot of skilfully quoted symbolism. Many meanings that can be decoded if only we are patient enough. If we linger a bit longer than the simple pleasure of experiencing the extraordinary world of this painting requires.
• For nothing is simple in these seemingly easy paintings. And when we get to know them better, we will witness the blurring of these two seemingly contradictory spaces: of realism and magic. Of magic realism — or perhaps real magic.
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• Curator
  • Krystyna Różańska-Gorgolewska
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Maciej Rauch

a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (2012). He is a painter, graphic designer, author of installations, animations, music videos and experimental music. He works in the field of magic realism presenting real characters within fairy-tale, mythical, and fantastical worlds, often using pop culture and music video references. To date, Rauch has already had a number of solo and group exhibitions.