Leon Tarasewicz (1957), WITHOUT TITLE, 2022

acrylic/canvas, 50 x 50 cm
signed, dated and described on the reverse: Leon Tarasewicz | 2022 | Acrylic on canvas

Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1984, receiving a diploma in Prof. Tadeusz Dominik's studio. As a pedagogue, he is associated with his alma mater - he runs the Painting Space Studio at the Media Art Department. In 2001, he represented Poland at the Venice Art Biennale. The artist is the recipient of many awards and prizes for his artistic activity and promotion of multiculturalism. He has received, among others, the Jan Cybis Award (1998), the Nowosielski Foundation Award, the Passport of "Polityka" (1999), the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (2005), the Great Award of the Foundation of Culture for 2006 for "consistently challenging both the traditional understanding of painting and all conventions of understanding art," the "Rzeczpospolita" award of Jerzy Giedroyc. Jerzy Giedroyc (2017) "for tireless work for the common good, cultivating the memory of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a great contribution to the promotion of Poland in the world as a country of many nations, cultures and religions." In 2022, the Senate of the University of Bialystok awarded Prof. Leon Tarasevich an honorary doctorate for "his constant search for new artistic challenges, crossing barriers and boundaries of cultural, historical and political prejudices."
Leon Tarasewicz's work is a constant experimentation with painting matter and at the same time a reflection on the status of painting and the definition of image. The artist often went beyond the surface of the canvas, creating painting installations in galleries or urban spaces. At that time he covered entire walls, floors, columns and sidewalks with paint. The latest realization of this type is the colorful staircase in front of the Lublin Castle (2022). The scale of such painting projects enhances their spectacularity.
Tarasewicz constantly returns to stretchers of smaller formats. Although the formal similarities between the paintings and the installations are immediately noticeable - such as the color scheme chosen or the repeated strip arrangements - each work on canvas is extremely intimate. Just as a river of color on a staircase is similar to a long story, a single painting is close to a concise poetic statement.
The presented canvas dazzles with light, which the painter, like an alchemist, extracted from the matter. He treated the surface of the painting almost in relief. By locally applying paint in layers, he created the impression of overlapping plans. The painting even invites you to touch it.