Piotr Janas, courtesy of Foksal Gallery Foundation
The Warsaw-based artists presents a series of highly visceral paintings for his first solo show in the UK
Polish painter Piotr Janas has established himself as an artist worthy of note on the international scene, filling his canvases with fleshy pinks and reds drawn straight from a living body - human or animal, reminiscent of an organic landscape of brightly-hued plants and animals. These shapes shove and tug against one another, creating a sense of depth upon the canvas. These organic forms are as fascinating as they are unsettling, inspired by the dark imagery of Francis Bacon and Paul Thek.
Piotr Janas (born in 1970) is a painter based in Warsaw. He has exhibited his work around the world, starting with the Foksal Gallery Foundation (2003 & 2009), then on to New York's Bortolomi (2007) and Jack Hanley galleries (2005). In 2010 Janas was included in the project Villa Reykjavik in Iceland as part of Foksal Gallery Foundation’s exhibition and he was part of the Polish exhibition at the 50th International Venice Biennale in 2003.
For Janas, the surface of a painting is like the surface of an operating table, and each successive canvas is a record of a surgical failure. The case of Janas is the case of an artist who, many years ago and in desperation, took on surreal themes which had been lost and decaying in Polish painting.
ICA
Upper Galleries
The Mall,
London SW1Y 5AH
www.ica.org.uk
To see more of Piotr Janas' work: www.artnet.com/artists/piotr-janas
Editor: Agnieszka Le Nart
Source: Press release