Leon Tarasewicz, LIGHTBOX, 2016

40 x 30cm - plexiglass, leds

40 x 30 × 20 cm
Leon Tarasewicz's compositions made up of led panels of homogeneous colorful radiance or pulsating with their intensity and color, constitute a separate chapter in this artist's work. Tarasewicz finds here another medium for further exploration of issues of color, light and luminosity. The use of Plexiglas material and leds brings effects different from those obtained with paints laid on a canvas base or on a wall. However, the association of Plexiglas and leds with the cityscape does not limit the message, as the artist seeks to bring out another dimension of color impact in this way.
One of Tarasewicz's first presentations of such objects took place at Warsaw's Art New Media gallery in 2009, followed by one in 2016, at Poznan's Ego gallery. An expanded idea of transcendental objects, kept in yellow tones, was presented at Foksal Gallery in 2018, during the Jerusalem exhibition. In installations using real (in this case, led) light, the artist seeks to achieve a transcendent message, having its source in sacred art. In doing so, he refers to the tradition of icons and the philosophy of light. On the other hand, the abandonment of the painter's hand gesture in favor of perpendicular forms, created with mechanical production, is close to the tradition of conceptualism and minimal art.


The painting exhibited, mentioned and reproduced, among others, in:: Painting Exhibited and Reproduced:
- Don't Ask About Poland. From the Collection of Katarzyna Szafrańska and Wojciech Szafrański, edited by Marta Smolińska, Center for Contemporary Art "Signs of the Times," Torun 21 II - 25 V 2025, p. 87.
♣ Droit de suite: ♣ An additional fee will be added to the Purchase Price based on the right of the creator and his heirs to receive remuneration in accordance with the Law of February 4, 1994 - on Copyright and Related Rights (droit de suite).

Leon Tarasewicz (stationed in Waliły, Bialystok, Poland, 14 III 1957, lives in the village of Waliły and in Warsaw) studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1979-1984. He received his diploma in the studio of Prof. Tadeusz Dominik. Already during his studies he found his own way of depicting nature subjected to synthesis on the verge of abstraction. In the early period, his paintings were based on keenly observed motifs, such as cones of trees on mountain slopes seen from afar, the rhythm of tree trunks in the forest, flocks of birds soaring, stones. Since around 1988, the artist has moved beyond concrete object references to purely painterly values: color, play of values, texture. He creates abstract compositions of fields and streaks of color filling large-format paintings, as well as - more and more often - paintings on gallery walls (e.g. at Konsthall, Malmö 1992, at Foksal Gallery, Warsaw 1994, at the exhibition "Art against Nature", Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw 1996). Over time, this type of spatial realizations in public places (although he also has a few private interior arrangements to his credit) became the main theme of his work. The apogee of this tendency came at the turn of the century, when the artist presented a colorful "floor" at the Venice Art Biennale in 2001 and a solo exhibition-installation at the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw in 2003, conceived as a painting space into which the viewer can physically enter. Since the beginning of his career, the artist has enjoyed many successes, including market successes, at home and abroad. He has taken part in many prestigious group exhibitions, and has individually collaborated with the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw since 1984, as well as with Galerie Nordenhake in Stockholm and Berlin, among others. He has had solo exhibitions at leading museums and galleries in the country, as well as in London, New York, Berlin, Venice and others. His works have entered prestigious museum collections. He received the Jan Cybis Award (1998), the Zofia and Jerzy Nowosielski Foundation Award (1999), and the "Polityka" Passport (2000). The artist emphasizes his Belarusian nationality and is active in the local community and opposition movements in Belarus. In the 1996/97 academic year, the Warsaw Academy invited him to run a studio at the Faculty of Painting. He teaches there to this day, being not only an artistic authority for the students, but also a dedicated teacher, organizer of open-airs, workshops, joint trips to exhibitions.