Matecki's earlier canvases used to incorporate text, which had the potential to radically transform the meaning of the visual layer. The text sometimes expressed a naïve rebellion (Mniejszy a droższy/Smaller Yet Pricier, 2005; W willi mieszkają bogaci/The Rich Live in the Villa, 2005), while other times it functioned as the voice of the presented protagonists, introduced in the form of comic speech bubbles. He created surprising “family trees” of the Pope (Struktury/Structures, 2006) or copied the weather report (Pory roku/Seasons).
Persons cut out from newspapers that appear in Matecki's paintings are often well known and recognizable in real life. After all, contemporary visual culture is dominated by pop culture. Hence, it is no coincidence that his paintings feature singers (Św. Madonna/St. Madonna, 2000), actors (Cichopek, 2006), film characters (I co tam? Jak tam? Jak leci?/So How Are Things? How Are You? How Is It Going?, 2001) or political figures (Condoleezza Rice, 2005/2006; Hugo Chavez, 2007). These figures, having been multiplied or turned into a kind of pictogram, lose their human character. The moment of abstraction, removal of the photographs' original context – of the colour magazine or whatever was represented in the image, but was covered or cut out by the artist – is foregrounded here. This is especially the case with the haircut-themed paintings, where even the faces are erased. The elements used by Matecki are sometimes the core of his works, like in the case of his site specific piece Matrix, exhibited at Raster Gallery in Warsaw in 2007. The tiled motif from an upside-down poster with the film protagonists extended onto the floor, which was covered with tape with the name of the gallery printed on it. This could be treated as an ironic gesture, referring to the art system and the matrix of the artist's commercial standing.
Charles Esche wrote that he is drawn to painting because of its deceptiveness, which always makes things look different to what they really are. Matecki relies on this deceptiveness, incorporating fragments of photographs into his paintings, most of all painting reproductions, photographic landscapes or images of architecture. The blue sky in a picture of a mountain landscape can transform into blue paint. A palace with a spectacular façade becomes a two dimensional, geometric shape. Matecki also juxtaposes reproductions of painted landscapes with his own interpretation of the subject (Pejzaż/Landscape, 2007).
In many of his paintings, the recognisable photographic motifs give place to a painting game, which camouflages them (e.g. Sowa/Owl, 2005; Żaby/Frogs, 2006) or become a counterpoint for the painting compositions (Kometa/Comet, 2007). These paintings constitute a borderline, which, once crossed, reveals Matecki's canvases as examples of matter art. This does not mean that it is limited to the so-called purely painterly issues. A painting gesture becomes a camouflage, a sensualisation of reality, but also an act of negation. His paintings which were diplayed in 2008, show many superimposed layers. As the artist said:
These days, I am interested in the situation of negation, which is manifested in multiple coating of a canvas. It is as if you were walking, but didn't want to get anywhere.
Selected solo exhibitions:
2006
- Painting - BWA, Zielona Góra, Poland
- Sasidis Motecki – Pies Gallery, Poznań (with Paweł Susid )
2007
- Raster Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (with Paweł Susid)
2008
- Hollybush Gardens, London
- Carlier Gebauer, Berlin
Selected group exhibitions:
2005
- Gentelmen's Story Club – Zamek Culural Centre, Poznań
2006
- New Trends in Polish Painting, BWA Municipal Gallery, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2007
- Raster Haircut - Rental Gallery, New York
- 1, 2, 3 Überraschung! - Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
- A Place to Live, a Place to Love… - BWA Zielona Góra; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Słupsk, Poland (2008); Municipal Gallery, Wrocław, Poland (2008)
2008
- Past Forward - Projectspace 176, London
- Red Eye Effect. Polish Photography of the 21st Century – Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
- Marian Szpakowski - Continuation – Lublin Region Museum, Zielona Góra
- Polish Venus A.D. 2008 – Kraków Photomonth
- 5th Young Triennial – Polish Sculpture Centre, Orońsko
2009
- Positionen der Polnischen Gegenwartskunst - Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
- Prague Biennial 4 - Prague, Czech Republic
Author: Karol Sienkiewicz, July 2009, transl. Ania Micińska, August 2015