Cyryl Polaczek
Reader - @ Warsaw Old Town
Reader - @ Warsaw Old Town
BIO
A visual artist, painter, and object artist, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (2008–10), Berlin (2013), and Krakow (2010–14). He is a founding member of the Potency group, along with Karolina Jabłońska and Tomasz Kręcicki. His work explores a range of themes, experimenting with painting techniques and forms of representation. It has landscape and plant motifs, as well as figurative themes. His color palette can vary from darker tones to more synthetic and bright compositions. Polaczek’s paintings stand out with their moody and evocative ambiance, often resulting from an attention to detail. His work is a synthesis of experimentation, stylistic evolution, and emotion, creating an intriguing visual atmosphere.
Artwork
Reader, oil on canvas, 2023
Reader is one of Polaczek’s several works of 2023–24 that depict books and people reading them. In a style all his own, the artist plays with the scale of the objects, transforming simple, everyday scenes of reading into surreal, intriguing compositions. The painting maintains an almost monochromatic tone—only the eyes provide a dash of color, while the other parts are depicted through changes in texture. Polaczek’s work often has a mysterious atmosphere—these are compositions full of half-told stories and open endings that encourage exploration and ambiguous interpretations.