The works of Polish artist Tomasz Kowalski (*1984) approach a visual language that is characterised by fiction, narrative elements and a network of references. They oscillate between two worlds whose surface hides a rhizome of phantoms, weightless figures and objects. 

In this cabinet show, carlier | gebauer presents selected works from the years 2008 and 2012, the majority of which were not given a title by the artist. They reflect personal and collective memories as well as allusions from art history. Kowalski arranges figures such as the juggler and acrobat – a motif that deployed highly-stylised figures on the periphery in Picasso’s Harlequin period – in new, surreal orders. These are juxtaposed with his abstract works on paper and wood that explore how shapes and lines are combined in space. 

Characterised by his studies in painting at the Academy of Arts in Krakow, where he was much influenced by his Prof Leszek Misiak, Kowalski developed his own distinct idiom. His figures enter the image field like the avant-garde’s Lichtgestalt, the creatures of light, detached from temporal dimensions and any tangible physical presence. Tomasz Kowalski continues the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, whose most prominent Polish representative was Tadeusz Kantor with his underground theatre company Cricot (‘that’s circus’). Just like the acting roles in the Theatre of the Absurd that lose themselves in stereotypes and caricatures, Kowalski’s figures reflect the mysterious element of our everyday world.