About
Wojciech Tracewski’s path through art was neither obvious nor straightforward - it was rather rugged, marked by unexpected turns and detours.
He began in the early 1980s, still during the period of the Polish People’s Republic. He painted in Warsaw’s Ochota district together with his friend from the Academy of Fine Arts and the neighbourhood, Maciej Zbigniew Dowgiałło. Young, bold, and uncompromising, they were quickly noticed by Andrzej Bonarski, who took them under his wing and began organising successive exhibitions of their work.
The large formats of the paintings and their uncompromising explosiveness attracted the attention of both audiences and critics. Wojciech Włodarczyk aptly described this art as “wild painting.” Everything appeared promising - there was talent, potential, and growing interest.
From the outset, Tracewski was drawn to large formats, expressive forms, and provocative titles. It was a time of clear and forceful attitudes, and his art was entirely aligned with that spirit, as were the paintings that followed.
Despite participating in one of the most important exhibitions of the time, What’s New? Contemporary Art in 1987, and despite the fact that everything suggested his large-scale, visionary paintings were perfectly attuned to their era - and I believe they indeed were - his career did not unfold as broadly as one might have anticipated. It is possible that he lacked either the humility or the persistence required to fight for participation in ever-new exhibitions, to continuously seek recognition, and to pursue artistic success at any cost.
I first met him during my high school years. Slightly older than me, he was admitted to the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. I saw his paintings at the aforementioned What’s New? exhibition at the Norblin Factory and felt proud to know this guy - the author of works that made such a strong impression on me. I admired the strength and determination emanating from them. Moreover, they conveyed a profound sense of independence; they were, in a way, sovereign. To make it even more remarkable, one of these works - painted by Wojtek in the late 1980s and titled Dedal - can be seen at his current exhibition in Wrocław.
Later, for many years, something else captured the artist’s attention. He began practising Buddhism and spent years delivering lectures on the subject around the world. From time to time, he returned to art, participating in both smaller and larger exhibitions, but he primarily expressed himself through words. Eventually, he made the decision to return definitively to painting. He settled in Spain, whose influence is clearly visible in his most recent works.
These new paintings by Wojtek Tracewski are created according to somewhat different principles. They have become smaller, more “universal.” The surprising titles have remained, but when paired with more modestly sized canvases, they have made the works perhaps more accessible - one might say, more human in scale. Several of them had their Wrocław, and thus Polish, premieres at the exhibition Positive Expressfusion, held recently at the Municipal Gallery.
At Mia Art Gallery, however, we decided to return to his earlier and slightly later works. We chose to present only large-format paintings. They still contain immense energy which, despite the passage of time, has lost none of its impact. At the same time, this exhibition constitutes a kind of chronological overview of Wojtek’s oeuvre - from the 1980s through to the present 2020s. These paintings demonstrate the durability of his ideas and the coherence of the artistic search of this still uncompromising, and in a profound sense still youthful, artist - one who remains insatiable, and whose hunger continues to resonate across his canvases. Time seems unable to touch these works. Although one can discern the eras in which they were created, they are unmistakably united by the same enduring power.