Karol Palczak, Burning Tree, 2020

oil, sheet metal, 70.5 x 43 cm signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse: Karol Palczak-/2020/ Burning Tree

Karol Palczak (b. 1987, Przemyśl) Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow (2015). Winner of the Grand Prix of the 44th Biennale of Painting Bielska Jesień 2019 and many other awards and prizes in the field of painting. After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, he returned to his hometown of Krzywcza, where he currently lives and works.

Karol Palczak belongs to a small group of contemporary artists who can be described as realists. The artist grew up in the small village of Krzywcza on the San River in the Podkarpacie region, where from a young age he taught himself the workshop by studying reproductions of paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer. Like the old masters, he uses paints made of natural pigments - earth, charcoal black, lacquer reds, green earth from Italy or chrome green.

Karol Palczak paints landscapes, scenes and objects, which constitute an imaginarium typical of Krzywcza and universal for this part of Europe. The most characteristic and valued by critics and collectors representations in Palczak's paintings are: burning trees, fields shrouded in smoke, car wrecks, genre scenes with close friends and family members.

What fascinates Palczak most are the processes of transformation in nature. The artist paints the same frames several times, but at a different moment in time. If his subject is a burning tree - he analyzes the successive stages of burning. The painting presented at the New Masters Auction is just one such study. It is the moment when the fire, ignited in a withered willow tree near a bend in the San River, slowly begins to lose its power. We observe the flame, the heated purple interior of the burned trunk, the falling sparks and the thick blue smoke.

The work "Burning Tree" was created in 2020 during preparations for a solo exhibition at the Bielska BWA Gallery, which summed up the work of the winner of the Grand Prix of the "Bielska Jesień" Biennale 2019. In the catalog accompanying the exhibition, its curator Piotr Rypson writes:

"Or perhaps this matter of authenticity is also necessary for us, art viewers, so that we can take a painting work seriously? And the painterly mastery that Karol Palczak operates and continues to strive for, in turn, builds a strong foundation for trusting painting - today, when the daily experience of the pushiness of paintings denies any hope of placing trust in them."

"Karol Palczak - With What I See Now [exhibition catalog]," edited by Piotr Rypson, published by Bielska Galeria BWA, Bielsko-Biala 2021, p. 12.



Works in collections:

Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
CCA Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw
Collection of Art of mBank, Warsaw
PKO Bank Polski Art Collection, Warsaw

Awards:

2022 1st place in the 12th ranking of the Compass of Young Art
2020 Nominated for "Polityka" Passports in the visual arts category for 2020.
2019 Grand Prix of the 44th Bielska Jesień Biennale of Painting, BWA Bielsko Biała
2018 Grand Prix in the 1st Cracow Salon of Art, Palace of Art, 2018, Cracow.
2017 Second prize in the IV ANIMALIS Painting Triennial 2017 Silesian Culture Center, Nakło Śląskie
2015 Medal of the Society of Friends of Fine Arts in the field of painting at the exhibition of Best Diplomas of the Academy of Fine Arts Krakow 2014/2015, Palace of Art, Krakow (2015).

Selected solo exhibitions:

2024 "Brilliance", Emalin , New York, USA.
2023 "Painting", BWA Przemyśl , Przemyśl, Poland.
2023 Paris + Par Art Basel, Emalin, Paris, FR
2023 "San," Gallery Emalin, London
2022 "Śreżoga", Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
2021 "With what I see now", Bielska Gallery BWA, Bielsko-Biala
2021 "With what I see now", BWA Tarnów, Tarnów
2021 "Fire and Snow", mia Art Gallery, Wrocław
2021 "Smokes", Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland
2019/2020 "Smoke", Promotional Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2019 "Every day one fire", Śladowski Gallery, Cracow.
2017/2018 "Baghvan", Potency Gallery, Krakow.

Selected group exhibitions:

2023 Paris + Par Art Basel, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Paris, Fr.
2023 "Earthly Paradise," Prześwit Gallery, Warsaw, Poland.
2023 "Duby Smalone," Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok.
2023 Art Basel, Basel
2022 "Refugees Welcome" - Artists for the benefit of uchchid and refugees, MSN, Warsaw, 2022
2022 Post-competition exhibition of the 12th Compass of Young Art 2022, Boleslaw Biegas Museum, Warsaw, 2022
2022 M for Youth - exhibition of works from the new mBank collection, State Art Gallery in Sopot, 2022.
2022 Share Your Anger - Night Art Patrol, Asp Gallery in Krakow, Krakow 2022
2022 The World in My Eyes - Night Art Patrol collection, Konstancin-Jeziorna House of Culture Huganowka, Konstancin-Jeziorna.
2021 #Collections #2000 #2020 - Night Art Patrol, BWA Tarnow.
2021 "Walk with me", ASP Gallery, Cracow, Poland
2021 "Fotomorgana" State Art Gallery, Sopot
2021 "What I Want - Night Art Patrol Collection" Boleslaw Biegas Museum,
2020 "Love at Shefter Gallery" Shefter Gallery Krakow (2020).
2020 "Newcomers" - New Collection of PKO Bank Polski, Praga Koneser Center.
2019 "Booooooom" - The Dell'Arte Foundation Collection, Śladowski Gallery, Kraków.
2019 44th Biennale of Painting Bielska Jesień, Bielska Galeria BWA, Bielsko Biała
2019 "The gardens have burned. Now it's raining" ZAMEK Cultural Center, Wrocław
2019 "11th Triennale of small painting forms" Wozownia Art Gallery, Toruń
2019 "Competition for the Marian Stroński Art Award" BWA Przemyśl
2018 "From the knees. Poland is a dream" Olimpia Gallery, Cracow
2018 "Cracow Salon of Art" The Palace of Fine Arts of Cracow
2018 "International Painting Competition of the Three Bridges Foundation" Painting Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts of Krakow, and Gallery at the Goats, Warsaw.
2018 "Communication with all that is" Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw
2017 "IV Triennale of Painting ANIMALIS 2017" Municipal Art Gallery MM, Chorzow and Silesian Culture Center, Naklo Slaskie (2017).
2017 "No Problem" Potencja Gallery, Cracow (2017)
2016 "Art Confrontations", Test Gallery, Warsaw, (2016)
2015 "Competition for the Grand Prix of the Franciszka Eibisch Foundation", Katarzyna Napiórkowska Art Gallery, Warsaw, (2015)
2015 "Best Diplomas," Palace of Art, Kraków, Poland.
2009 "Stage Debuts of the Young," Cultural Center, Przemyśl.