Piotr C. Kowalski, 1951, Double-sided painting, 2021 from the series Transitional Paintings

frotage (dust and dust from Poznan, acrylic, padding, 50 x 40 cm

Born in 1951 in Mieszkovo. In 1978 he graduated from the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture of the Poznan State Higher School of Fine Arts. He received his diploma in S. Teisseyre`s studio. He is a professor at the Painting Department of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznan and at the Design Department of the Koszalin University of Technology.

He quickly created his own style, painting original installations in which he covered surrounding objects with paint squeezed directly from a tube. He also transferred motifs from the works of the masters (O. Kokoshka, P. Picasso, E. Nolde) and added objects to his paintings, which he incorporated into his works. Sometimes he exposes the stretchers with his paintings to rain, sun and wind, from which abstract compositions are later created.

His work - following Max Ernst's oft-quoted statement by the artist that: a picture can be painted with anything even paints - is a perverse dialogue with the tradition of craftsmanship and the mimetic function of art. Kowalski's works, while being as painterly as possible, are created without paint. The artist paints, or rather leaves traces of matter in the picture space, allowing them to transform naturally. Thus, in the series Tasty and Unpalatable Paintings, he paints berries with berries, mud with mud, etc. In Rotten Paintings, he allows the pumpkin to decompose on the stretched canvas frames, creating a trace of the decay of organic matter. Or finally, in the series Transitional, Passing and Passing Images, he places the frames in random places in the urban space exposing it to the elements such as dirt, car wheels, the feet of passersby or vandalism, and thus creates a material image of the city.