THE HORIZON ZONE Józef Chyży
18.01.2010
Józef Chyży was born in 1983 in Lewin Brzeski. He graduated from the Art Institute of the Opole University.
A diploma with distinction in 2008 at the graphic arts studio under Professor M. Kamińska and an annex in painting at Professor Łucja Piwowar-Bagińska’s studio.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2009 Vanquishers of Dreams, Panaceum Gallery, Opole
2009 Grand Prix of Young Polish Graphic Arts, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
2009 International Print Triennial, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
2009 Jantarová Cesta, Hradec nad Moravici Gallery, Czech Republic
2009 Painting and drawing, Kler showroom, Opole
2009 Student Graphic Arts Biennial, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań
2008 Promotions, Gallery of Art in Legnica
2008 Diploma, Contemporary Art Gallery, Opole
2008 Contact, Art Institute Gallery of the University of Silesia, Cieszyn
2008 Painting, Town Hall Gallery, Brzeg
2007 Deutsche Bank, Opole
2007 Student Graphic Arts Biennial, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań
Józef Chyży’s painting is an amalgam of two different levels: one is the abstractive painting matter – expressive and colouristically vivid, while the other includes figurative representations – the area of unbridled imagination creating ornamental flora, linearly stylised figures and glittering animals taken straight from a childhood fantasy, captured within a typographical design.
The perspective characterising this type of creation is a perspective of imagination and not of geometric drawing. Its arrangement resembles a sheet of paper subconsciously covered with spilt images and spontaneous creatures. The fact that a crocodile inhabits the same air space as a plane does is not a contradiction within the sphere of imagination, nor are the plants growing in different directions, even at right angles to one another, and a gigantic dragonfly may circle around a moustached general’s epaulettes. The artist juggles the threads, sometimes growing serious, showing a kind of an alchemic model of a human head compared to star constellations, making an esoteric impression, and suddenly changing the tonality by introducing a smiling cat’s long moustache and a pig living on a tree. Chyży’s canvas is a place where playing at history and at life takes place, full of theatre showpieces – costumes of the learned, of emperors and of lovers. Motifs change in a flash, like a logorrhea from the mouth of a hyperactive child prone to confabulation. This logorrhea, or maybe rather an iconorrhea – a stream of pictures – results from the voracity for perceiving, which is demonstrated, for instance, by the title of the exhibition: The horizon zone. All that can be found in view and within the intellectual range makes the material for artistic processing. All cultures and all elements of the world’s jigsaw are interesting. One can get inspired by science, mysticism, a fairy tale or a caprice of an amused mind.
Józef Chyży’s works often feature royal insignia, such as crowns or orbs, which propagate the splendour of art and the primacy of imagination, confirming the following words: “We play and know that we play, so we must be more than merely rational beings, for play is irrational” (Johan Huizinga).
Łukasz Kropiowski
A diploma with distinction in 2008 at the graphic arts studio under Professor M. Kamińska and an annex in painting at Professor Łucja Piwowar-Bagińska’s studio.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
2009 Vanquishers of Dreams, Panaceum Gallery, Opole
2009 Grand Prix of Young Polish Graphic Arts, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
2009 International Print Triennial, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
2009 Jantarová Cesta, Hradec nad Moravici Gallery, Czech Republic
2009 Painting and drawing, Kler showroom, Opole
2009 Student Graphic Arts Biennial, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań
2008 Promotions, Gallery of Art in Legnica
2008 Diploma, Contemporary Art Gallery, Opole
2008 Contact, Art Institute Gallery of the University of Silesia, Cieszyn
2008 Painting, Town Hall Gallery, Brzeg
2007 Deutsche Bank, Opole
2007 Student Graphic Arts Biennial, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań
Józef Chyży’s painting is an amalgam of two different levels: one is the abstractive painting matter – expressive and colouristically vivid, while the other includes figurative representations – the area of unbridled imagination creating ornamental flora, linearly stylised figures and glittering animals taken straight from a childhood fantasy, captured within a typographical design.
The perspective characterising this type of creation is a perspective of imagination and not of geometric drawing. Its arrangement resembles a sheet of paper subconsciously covered with spilt images and spontaneous creatures. The fact that a crocodile inhabits the same air space as a plane does is not a contradiction within the sphere of imagination, nor are the plants growing in different directions, even at right angles to one another, and a gigantic dragonfly may circle around a moustached general’s epaulettes. The artist juggles the threads, sometimes growing serious, showing a kind of an alchemic model of a human head compared to star constellations, making an esoteric impression, and suddenly changing the tonality by introducing a smiling cat’s long moustache and a pig living on a tree. Chyży’s canvas is a place where playing at history and at life takes place, full of theatre showpieces – costumes of the learned, of emperors and of lovers. Motifs change in a flash, like a logorrhea from the mouth of a hyperactive child prone to confabulation. This logorrhea, or maybe rather an iconorrhea – a stream of pictures – results from the voracity for perceiving, which is demonstrated, for instance, by the title of the exhibition: The horizon zone. All that can be found in view and within the intellectual range makes the material for artistic processing. All cultures and all elements of the world’s jigsaw are interesting. One can get inspired by science, mysticism, a fairy tale or a caprice of an amused mind.
Józef Chyży’s works often feature royal insignia, such as crowns or orbs, which propagate the splendour of art and the primacy of imagination, confirming the following words: “We play and know that we play, so we must be more than merely rational beings, for play is irrational” (Johan Huizinga).
Łukasz Kropiowski
