Ariadne Caccavale on ORAPIZM — Critical Note, Venice 2026

This critical note by Ariadne Caccavale, art critic and curator, was written in connection with the presentation of ORAPIZM by Krzysztof Konopka in the space of the Guatemala Pavilion at Spazio Berlendis in Venice, within the framework of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Referring to ORAPIZM – The Art of Inacja, an artistic practice based on presence – created by Krzysztof Konopka, as well as to the work “I now”, palette knife oil painting on canvas, 60 × 80 cm, 2022, the note also introduces the context of the conversation with Krzysztof Konopka, artist and creator of ORAPIZM, entitled “Orapizm – Krzysztof Konopka”, scheduled at the Guatemala Pavilion for 4 September 2026 at 5:00 PM.

ORAPIZM® — created by Krzysztof Konopka

Original critical note

Original English text

Artworks by the polish Maestro Krzysztof Konopka testify a philosophical and aesthetic vision which emerges thanks to an abstract style capable to conveying emotions; his paintings are totally focused on experience, in the act of making, in the processual quality of art that never stops and wants to encompass the totality of expression.

Sign and color are the tools which activate and modulate sensations: the observer is called to cross the artist’s repertoire, to live his moments, not to look at him from the outside: there’s an inner and centripetal energy to face, impossible to deny.

Spatial cognition is, of course, the central concept of his way of doing art: as inventor of “Orapizm – The Art of Inacja” /“Orapizm – Presence Based Painting”, Krzysztof Konopka gathers information from the space he’s in and translates them into a vocabulary of gestures, thus discovering that perception, conception and language are strictly linked: he also believes that perception actually has a rather active dimension as a primordial, innate and structural openness to the world of life. This is fundamental for the idea of “INACJA” he had, that opens doors to a pre-narrative level, in which image emerges through direct engagement with matter.

More specifically, this last one interacts with surface and sign, suggesting something hidden and revealed at the same time, as in the case of I now, here introduced: a record of a specific and contingent moment where action and content are forever joint.

During his long career, the works he realized have been presented in Amsterdam, London, Venice, Rome, Milan, Florence, Paris, Vienna, and Warsaw.

In 2025, his first solo exhibition about Orapizm ‘Orapizm – Art of Inacja’, took place at OSTEN Gallery in Skopje.

(Ariadne Caccavale)

ORAPIZM – Krzysztof Konopka, creator of “the Art of Inacja”, I now, palette knife oil painting on canvas, 60×80 cm, 2022.