Dobieslaw GŁA (1975), Epicenter from the series: Zone "79"

Relief, panel, foam, paper, pigments; 100 x 100 cm
Signed, dated, p. d.: D. GAŁA 22
Work exhibited at the exhibition: ZONE "79" At the White Gallery of the National Cultural Center Krakow - 2022 and at the exhibition "Reliefs" at the Villa Decius Institute of Culture in Krakow - 2022.

Dobieslaw Gala - sculptor, painter and draughtsman. He received his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in the studio of Prof. Marian Konieczny. He received a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, where he worked under the direction of the famous Tim Scott. Laureate and winner of the Grand Prix of the 10th Triennial of Polish Contemporary Drawing. Scholarship holder of the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Poland. Winner of many awards and honors for artistic work. Currently Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Dobieslaw Gala's works have been presented in more than 70 exhibitions at home and abroad.
The series of Reliefs Zone "79" is inspired by the physics of explosion, its impact on the surrounding reality, the spread of changes caused by its influence. However, Dobieslaw Gala goes further - he invites you to travel deep into its Epicenter, is an invitation to the hypocenter: the source of the resulting modifications. Physical fascination turns into a journey of unlimited imagination of the artist and the viewer. These works, which are a kind of hybrid of painting, sculpture and drawing, attract the viewer with the magnetic power of color changing under the influence of light and structures.

Dobieslaw Gala practices the art of tilting doors. The idea is to suggest to the viewer that right here, exactly in the place where this artist's work hangs, there is a secret passage to the other side of the world - where the visible forms of the invisible are hidden and where the shapes of the laws, in accordance with which our reality dances, are revealed - completely invisible from the side of our busy everyday life. In his work, the principle formulated by Zygmunt Bauman in his book "Liquid Life" is realized: Culture always rises above what currently passes for reality. It does not deal with what just happens to be on everyone's lips and is considered the order of the moment. In any case, it tries to transcend the limitations of "typicality" understood in this way and struggles to free itself from its pressures.
Gała, in his artistic practice, opens the door to this passage only a little - just enough to create a narrow gap to which the viewer will cling with a voracious eye and see indistinct shapes through it. I have seen at these doors avid viewers who, standing motionless in front of Gala's work, lose themselves in it to the point where they lose contact with reality "on our side" for long minutes. (...)
Prof. Dr. Andrzej Bednarczyk, Rector of the J. Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow
(excerpt from the introduction to the catalog: Dobiesław Gała "Reliefs")