Tymek Borowski
Theory and practice
“Dear Art World, I know that it will be difficult for you to believe this, but there is no irony here, everything is real. These are my views. I do not want to reduct them down to minimalistic, ambiguous works. Even if all of this sounds a bit silly” – a direct declaration from Tymek Borowski which he placed onto infographic First Things First and this alone should be enough commentary regarding his exhibition. Those who know his work, know that it was not always so. Borowski, until recently, belonged to the group of artists which were “tired of reality”, as defined by their contemporary critic, and the current art dealer Jakub Banasiak. “Running away from realism (...), as well as explicit philosophical statements, Borowski is building autonomous worlds of painting, in which the most important things are paint, canvas, as well as the color and shape of the presented ideas” – wrote about the artist’s fantastic, abstract paintings.
Two years ago, in Borowski’s works, a real revolution took place. Painting was considered by him outdated and boring, and the metaphor was replaced by the information provided directly, without the use of aesthetic tools. “For all intents and purposes, the issues of contemporary painting boils down to the question, «how to make a tasteful and unique object that looks as if it has a deep message to convey»” – Borowski wrote recently, with undisguised contempt. That is why he quickly replaced the amazing surrealist forms built with acrylic and oil on canvases into infographics – transparent informational structures sort of resembling PowerPoint presentations created by corporate trainers or Internet memes, spontaneously invented by anonymous amateur copywriters. Sometimes moralizing, often systematizing reality, categorizing and naming social phenomena, Borokowski’s implementations show the author’s consistent and coherent worldview. Borowski is no longer “tired of reality”. Instead, he boldly declares (though non-orthographically) something quite the opposite: “high on lyfe”.
