Czeslaw Podlesny, Safeway
Bronze and steel
Dimensions: 159 x 19 x 26 cm (including steel pedestal)
UNIQUE
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The work is a continuation of the "Podlesny intimately" series. The series was created for institutions that had smaller exhibition spaces and expected works on a smaller scale. The origins of the idea go back to the 1980s. The distinctive faces of the generals echo the times of struggle against the authorities of the time. Individual installments of the series are created in different forms, but the characteristic faces of the figures remain constant.
"When my sculptures appear in public space, my commentary falls silent: the viewer and the sculpture have more to say to each other than my narrative would. They are faced with many questions to which they must find their answers, but in doing so they discover layers of emotion that I missed by focusing on form and message."
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Czeslaw Podlesny (born 1959 in Rybnik), son of a miner, sculptor, draughtsman, painter, poet. He studied at the Antoni Kenar High School in Zakopane, the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdansk and the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Diploma with honors in the studio of Prof. S. Kulon.
Together with Jerzy Fober and Andrzej Szarek, he is a co-founder of the art group "...Who you are". He was a resident of American universities min. Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where he taught students. Five-time scholarship recipient of the Ministry of Culture and Art. A participant in many sculpture exhibitions and symposiums, his works are in museums and private collections. Since 2015, he is the originator and coordinator of the WL4 Art Space artistic initiative in Gdansk. Czeslaw Podlesny creates intriguing metal figures, which are sculptural collages composed of various materials and found objects. They are heavy with grotesque, yet full of expression and dynamism. They often assume disproportionate forms. They are associated with characters from comic books, movies and games.
In 2018 he received a doctorate in art from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Stanislaw Seyfried on Czeslaw Podlesny:
The artist believes that the climate of the Coast, the atmosphere of the ubiquitous Free City of Gdansk creates enormous opportunities to find new stimuli, inspiration, possibilities, and as a searching, restless, unruly artist he has finally found his place. He believes that art has a national dimension, and encourages young artists to leave their studios and try their hand somewhere else. He himself travels a lot, participates in art symposiums, exhibits all the time in Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, and does not lose touch with reality, does not consider himself the navel of the world. Gdansk airs his outstanding original art further asking the fundamental question "Who are you?"
