Dates: 9 December 2017-21 January 2018
Vernissage: 8 December 2017, 6:00 pm
Artist: Ryszard Litwiniuk
Venue: Gdańsk City Gallery 1, Piwna Street 27/29
Curator: Grażyna Tomaszewska-Sobko
Etalon, derived from the domain of Maths, depicts a point of reference in establishing units of measure. Gdańsk constitutes such a point for Ryszart Litwiniuk’s creation. It is where he studied sculpture and later lived and worked as an artist until, in the mid-90s, he made a decision to leave for Canada. And after many years spent abroad and numerous exhibitions worldwide: in Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, Argentina, Finland, India and Cyprus to name just some, the artist returns to Gdańsk to find a point of departure for his whole oeuvre.
However varied the materials used by Litwiniuk in his works are, they are always close to nature. And although wood remains his basic material, he used to make use of such means as snow, ice, water, grass, germinating seeds and soil. Wood itself is full of meanings and symbols. It obviously stands for life-giving power and endurance spanning in time. In his most recent works, the artist, in the process of revealing still thinier and thinier structures of growth rings, evokes the notion of infinity. The large scale of the objects results in extraordinary poignancy, which can be also attributed to the apparent simplicity: the focus on the material aspect of the solid and unmasked trace of the carving tools.
The show of Ryszard Litwiniuk’s sculpture is the next showcase of the “Logos – Bios” cycle that gathers those sculptors whose work represent the search and confrontation of culture and nature: the domain of chaos referring to biology and logos, associated with order, human intervention and symbolic oppression.
