DEFRAGMENTATION 1.0 | Exhibition of Marcin Białas at Atelier Gallery, National Academy of Art – Burgas Branch
2024.03.13
14 March – 13 April 2024
Opening: 14 March 2024, 5:30 pm, Atelier Gallery
Magazia 1, Burgas Port Complex
Bio
Marcin Białas – graphic artist, drawer, teacher. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice (Poland), and for diploma project was awarded with a medal in the Intaglio Printing Atelier of Prof. Jan Szmatloch in 2004. Since then, he has been working at his alma mater. In 2011, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Arts (PhD), and in 2019 – the degree of habilitated doctor. From 2020 onwards he is professor at The Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Faculty of Art, in Katowice.
Białas has carried out several individual graphic presentations in Poland, Canada (Trois-Rivierès), Romania (Ploiești), Germany (Berlin), Ireland (Dublin), Belarus (Minsk), France (Paris), Iran (Tehran), Belgium (Antwerp), Hungary (Budapest). Since 2003, he has been actively participating in graphic arts reviews and festivals in Poland and abroad. The artist has taken part in about 300 collective exhibitions, including competitions, and has received about 50 awards and distinctions.
About the exhibition & short statement
The works presented in the Defragmentation 1.0 exhibition are a selection of works from the last twenty years of artistic work (2003–2023), and all were created by using intaglio printing techniques. The oldest works were carried out as part of the Master's degree graduation project and 2–3 years after the diploma defense. The next two series correspond with each other thematically and in terms of the architectural motifs used – one of the series is called Above the Pavements and the other – Room with a View. The latest works (over the last three years) are carried out as part of the Half-Life series, which includes prints, paintings and objects, but their common denominator is still the graphic matrix.
Initially, I based my artistic searches on figurative representations, but gradually I abandoned their use in favour of the interpretation of urban structures, in which the symbolic presence of man still had its place and purpose. The graphic interpretations of urban infrastructure were inspired by the city of Katowice, and were intended to create alternative places in a parallel world. I am currently working on the Half-Life series, which is an attempt to defragment the information and intuition resulting from observations of modern times.
Marcin Białas