Poland, 1st Half of the 21st Century (2004)
Glinkowski graduated from the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied painting, graphic arts and sculpture. He also studied drawing under Jarosław Kozłowski and graphic arts under Tadeusz Jackowski, graduating in 2002. He has curated the Precedens Art Festival since 2001 and Galeria Aula at the Poznań Academy since 2004, and currently works at the Poznań Academy of Fine Arts. He lives and works in Poznań.
Glinkowski is an artist who creates objects and installations that intervene in and interfere with extant reality. His subject is often the museum, which he sees as the context in which a work of art functions, examining both a museum's overall discourse and its historical context. Przemysław Jędrowski aptly described Glinkowski's work, writing that he "consistently reduces his own artistic position and presence to the role of a commentator participating in the discourse on art's institutional framework … His most important and fundamental need appears to be to study the source and meaning of a work of art, and thus shed light on culture in general and the individual's presence and significance within it."
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Collection (2002, 2003, 2004) |
Glinkowski's favourite painting motifs are frames and museum-style information plaques. The series Collection (2002, 2003, 2004) (more photos), exhibited at Poznań's Galeria u Jezuitów, originated as the artist's thesis project. In it, he made black-and-white ornamental (and later plain and simple) frames using graphic techniques such as etching, aquatint and soft-ground etching, accompanied by polished brass plaques like the ones placed under paintings in museums. However, the plaques were blank, containing no text at all. The frames, which remained empty, were themselves the eponymous "collection." In this way, Glinkowski questions the originality of artwork, while underlining the historical and contemporary possibilities of creating copies. He also emphasises the potential implicit in the very concept of the frame.
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Myths. Small Artistic Salons |
For the exhibition Palimpsest at the City of Łódź History Museum (part of the 2004 Łódź Art Biennale), Glinkowski replaced the standard information plaques next to the exhibits with brass plaques that were completely blank (Myths. Small Artistic Salons, more photos). Through this anarchical act of disinformation, Glinkowski deprived the historical exhibits of their role as museum displays, restoring their utilitarian potential and questioning their real status.
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Poland, 1st Half of the 21st Century (2004) |
He later returned to the idea of frames with the series Poland, 1st Half of the 21st Century (2004) (more photos), this time examining the merging of high-brow and low-brow culture. Glinkowski used screenshots from TV news programmes, soap operas, documentaries and political portraits – all types of material gleaned from the real media – and placed them inside gold-painted frames. Everything he chose was a reference to contemporary Poland, and together they form a somewhat fragmented picture of the country in the first half of the 21st century. As artist and critic Rafał Jakubowicz noted,
The artist does not judge. He merely confronts these situations, these shreds of fleeting events fished out of the media chaos, out of the infoglut that has deprived us of the ability to think critically.
For the exhibition Inner State at Poznań's Centrum Kultury Zamek in 2006, Glinkowski staged another intervention, scattering information plaques designed for public buildings throughout the venue ( Foundation, more photos). The plaques, however, bore unusual messages (such as "This is your property. Be proud of what you have", or "What you see is yours"), presenting the public building as a common good. The messages were bilingual, in both Polish and German, which could be considered to be a reference to the castle's history; an example of Kaiser Wilhelm-era architecture, it is a legacy of the era when Poznań was under Prussian administration.
Author: Karol Sienkiewicz, October 2007.
Solo exhibitions:
- 2001
- Odbicia - Galeria Rotunda, ASP, Poznań
- Pictura non grata - Galeria PWW, Zielona Góra - 2002 - Kolekcja - Galeria U Jezuitów, Poznań
- 2003 - Wesołych świąt i szczęśliwego nowego roku - Galeria ON, Poznań
- 2004 - Kolekcja c.d. - Galeria Kronika, Bytom; Stary Browar, Poznań
- 2005
- Polska 1 poł. XXI Wieku - Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Słupsk
- Jaka to wyobraźnia - Galeria AT, Poznań - 2006 - Prawdziwa wystawa - Biblioteka Sztuki, Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego, Zielona Góra
- 2008 - Kontynuacja - Galeria AT, Poznań
Selected group exhibitions:
- 2002
- Dwie wieże - Galeria ON, Poznań
- Procesy - Inner Spaces, Poznań - 2004
- Rybie oko 3. Biennale Sztuki Młodych - Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Słupsk
- Palimpsest Muzeum, Biennale Sztuki w Łodzi, Muzeum Historii Miasta Łodzi
- Euroart - Koszary Sztuki, Świnoujście - 2005
- Art Poznań - Stary Browar, Poznań
- Signal Box / Nastawnia - Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko- Biała
- Zmiana warty - Stary Browar, Poznań - 2006
- Śląsk Activ 2 - BWA, Katowice
- Re-wizja - Galeria Sztuki Mediów, Warsaw
- Stan Wewnętrzny - Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań
- Architektura intymna, architektura porzucona - Galeria Kronika, Bytom
- Zobacz to co ja. Młoda sztuka z Poznania - Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań; Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała (2007)
- Sztuka w służbie lewaków - Galeria Kronika, Bytom - 2007
- Asteizm w Polsce. Dowcip i władza sądzenia - Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski; Galeria Program, Warsaw; Galeria Arsenał, Poznań
- Medium... Post... Mortem... - La Châtaigneraie - Centre Wallon d'art Contemporain, Belgium; Galeria Klimy Bocheńskiej, Warsaw
- Ewokacje matrycy - Otwarta Pracownia, Cracow
- Rekonesans malarstwa - Górnośląskie Centrum Kultury, Katowice; BGSW Słupsk
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Galeria ON, Poznań
- Impact - 5th International Printmaking Conference, Tallinn, Estonia
- Muzeum w galerii - Galeria Nowy Wiek, Muzeum Ziemi Lubuskiej w Zielonej Górze
- Manual CC. - Kronika, Bytom
- Reality Effect / Efekt Rzeczywistości - Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, Warsaw
- Ewokacje matrycy - 6 Triennale Grafiki Polskiej, Otwarta Pracownia, Cracow - 2008 - Asteizm w Polsce. Dowcip i władza sądzenia, CSW Łaźnia, Gdańsk
Continuation Galeria AT, Poznań, styczeń 2008 |
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