Krzysztof Konopka became an artist late and almost by accident
An event of great unease, which upset his life, made him change the habits and personality but has
allowed him to see the world through the artist’s eyes. His encounter with art was like waking up
from a long hibernation.
An artist came out of the common man just as a colored butterfly comes out of the gray cocoon.
Time spent inertia was not wasted because served him like meditation and silent personal
maturation, where the observation of nature, allowed Konopka to develop his imagination.
Krzysztof has gained strong empathy with everything around him. Following his personal
transformation, he has taken a leap forward in professional research, burning the stages and soon
collecting in his curriculum very important international exhibitions.
He has exhibited relentlessly first in Warsaw, then in London, Amsterdam and Rome. Last year in
2019 his colorful canvases were presented in Florence during the Biennale of Contemporary Art,
where the Selection Commitee have recoginise his style and where his artworks have received the
great admiration among the large pubblic. His approach to the painting grew up from the avantgardes of the twentieth century as favism and expressionism which elements are later transformed
creating the personal style that the artist has called orapizmo. With spontaneous brush strokes that
ripple and scratch the surface of the canvas, he superimposes his emotional chaos on the images
represented, transmitting the freshness and naturalness of his gesture. In this way the artist becomes
a conductor and catalyst revealing and amplifying our hidden in the unconscious emotions .
He brings out our primodial sensations by capturing them in his tangle of colors and invoices from
different textures. The real world is always the starting point for his works, but the vision is
transformed through the action of chromatic superimpositions. Konopka In his composition is often
inspired by the female figure, where eroticism plays an important role, but at the same time
underlines the strong color sensations inspired by nature, and presenting the painted object and its
background as the unique set of colors. The background scenary is very important for Polish artist,
where the mother nature offers many creative opportunities. In his works very often the dense
textures of the colors, put with the spatula on canvas, allude to the waves of the sea, the vortige of
the water and movement of the wind between clouds. Thanks to this technique the viewer receives
a message of our belonging as a species to the environment. The Human and nature are one.
Through his particular technique dictated by the immediate artistic gestures like action painting, his
artworks obtains a bas-relief effect of color receiving in this way the aspect of typical primitive
decorative and ritual art . His artworks have pure colors like in the Favism, however the
consistency is different and very often in last phase of the work the movement is added.
His paintings emanates energy and are pulsating with life in the same way like the nature do. The
action of painting is immediate and represents a moment of the artist’s wild liberation. This feeling
can be easly noticed by the viewer. The figurative subjects of his canvas is hidden under thick layer
of painted textures with bright and contrasting colors. The painter becomes a psychoanalyst and
through his art allows to the viewer to discover his unconscious emotions. The empathy between
the artist and the public is established immediately by the use of optical art illusions of cromatic
vibrations created on the canvases , which very often allude to electromagnetic waves, capturing
the view of the observer. The
Range of chosen shades often involves passionate and lively colors like yellow, orange and red,
contrasted by the green and blue which are caratteristic of Vincent van Gogh’s expressionism and
Paul Gauguin’s favism. Sometimes Krzysztof Konopka paints in layers so that the underlying part
emerges and intertwines with the one above.
This creates a chromatic dialogue between the surfaces and invites to a deeper reading of the work,
able to bring out the ancient emotions and desires, scrutinizing every corner of our soul.
Konopka’s canvases generate great energy and positivity, illustrating the force of nature and being
hymn to life commanded by instinctive and primordial forces.
Like in the abstract expressionism, the same way for the Polish artist, painting becomes a
psychological action, but instead of an existential background it is a primordial empathic impulse of
connection with nature. The artist creates his paintings guided by this impulse and without a project,
letting the composition reveal our hidden truths while viewing the work .
The pilgrimage to Santiago di Campostella was fundamental life’s event for Krzysztof Konopka that
sparked a strong creativity.
Konopka as artist was born in Santiago – first with his travel journal sketches and taking
photographs of his own pilgrim’s shadow, projected on always different paths and landscapes.
In the early years dedicated to painting, her visions were linked to the figure in a more descriptive
way. The nudes of a woman full of energy and charged with eroticism, intended as a generator of
life and passion, represents the center of gravity of the composition .
The sexual act intended as a spiritual and energetic exchange often appears in the themes of the
works, but the figurative narratives of the canvases seems to be obscured by the windows of the
cathedrals, which sparkle with color and light, leading to our spiritual part.
The reference to sacredness it is also underlined in the visions of the facades of churches and the
skyline of distant cities dominated on the horizont by their bell towers.
This continuous intertwining of carnality and spirituality confirm the complex balance existing in
human life between real and inner world.
Konopka’s works, however, allow to very individual interpretation by offering only the medium for
personal psychological analysis.
The artist is using the theme of sexual intercourse as inspiration in the initial phase of the work to
be subsequently deprived this of any form in the simplification process.
At first glance the work seems to be informal and only a careful observation and analysis of the
painting reveals the hidden subject.
The erotic act is intended as a meeting point between two universes, the male and female one
where exchange of energies takes place.
Several works by Krzysztof Konopka resemble Kooning’s artistic production, however
subsequently losing the clarity of form and developing their perception of the world, which tends
progressively towards the informal.
The Polish artist is using effect of a frottage made by the colors put on by impulse-action like
Pollock did but instead of splashing the paint he hurls itself on the canvas with the dense spatula
of color and transforms its emotional energy into a pictorial work.
During the recent edition of the Florence Biennale in 2019, the artist was publicly recognized as the
precursor of a new current called Orapizmo (which means from the Portuguese-access track), which
processes and develops abstract expressionism, favism and informal painting, to create the basis for
new style of visual art.
Krzysztof Konopka in next season will partecipate to artistic tour taking part in the second edition
of the AqvArt event at Palazzo San Teodoro in Venice, then he will exhibit in an important
international show -the homage to Tamara De Lermpicka.
/Arch.Margherita Blonska Ciardi/