Tomasz Kręcicki Tissue, 2023

Scale and the body are major motifs in the paintings of Tomasz Kręcicki. Grotesquely enlarged fingers applying gelatinous substances from an unmarked tube or pulling a tissue out from a small cardboard box have an absurdist element but also evoke the artist’s continued exploration of the abstract in figuration. A surrealist unreality imbues the artist’s depictions of common activities and everyday objects, recalling a Lynchian atmosphere but often cut with a dash of the campy spookiness of B-movie horror. 

A major theme has been a kind of bathos: the mockery of earnestness, undercutting aspirations through absurdity, jokes, and wit. At the same time, works depicting everyday objects can evoke a sense of anxiety and foreboding created by the implied physical threat, for example of a pushpin poised to break the skin or pattern of long black wires used to deter birds. Kręcicki’s subject matter then is inherently existential and addresses both contemporary politics and its repercussions on the individual.