Krzysztof Mętel
BIO
Visual artist and painter based in Poznań. He graduated from the Painting and Drawing Department and completed his PhD studies at the University of the Arts in Poznań. Currently, he works at his alma mater, jointly running a painting studio. Since 2021, he and Mateusz Piestrak have been in charge of an artist-run space, Pani Domu. Mętel's artwork is inspired by - unsuccessful and abandoned pictures, which he - reinterprets and develops further. He explores the theme of failure through appropriation and reuse.
Artwork
Untitled (19), acrylic and enamel paint on canvas, 2022
Untitled (19) is part of a series in which the artist borrows recycling strategies, using fragments of other, abandoned works. Mętel’s painting is patchwork, stitched together from scraps and strips. By repurposing these materials, the artist challenges the concept of failure, generating entirely new contexts through juxtaposition. On the one hand, the resulting works are a testimony of the time that has passed and faded meaning; on the other, they reflect a new compositional logic. This picture was displayed during his solo exhibition, Each One Ends When I Want, at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Opole (2022) and during the 46th Bielska Autumn Painting Biennale in Bielsko-Biała (2023).