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Tomek Baran
Xanax
The non-recurring gesture, the unique brushstroke that leaves a trace in the form of a line on the canvas, they are duplicated at the same time. The artist covers the white surface with a dense network, creating a tangle of structures. His geometric figures appear crooked and one-sided. Individual lines break out of the bounding space and disrupt the rectangular shape of the picture. Baran hypnotizes us with his tangle of subdivisions, which sometimes appear to be regular, then slightly inclined backwards, are never finished and transport us into another world. Katarzyna Was, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow
If you place a flower inside a neon lamp and turn electricity on, the light coming from the lamp would probably resemble one of Tomek Baran's color-stripe paintings. His art has something of a scientific laboratory where beams of lights refract and bodies in test tubes deform. This, however, exists only in the eye of the beholder. His works remain abstract: they employ no symbols; they refer to no outer world. Yet like a broken mirror they reflect. The line, recurrent in most of his works, cuts the plain into two, three or four areas, breaking the image. A painting you can't break. You may fold it, pull or push it, scratch or cut it - and some of these have been performed by Tomek Baran - yet it remains. Unlike broken glass, a broken painting can't cut your hand or eye-ball. Devoid of noise or anger, his art is neither emotional nor rational; it is both and none at the same time. A painting you can't break because painting is already broken. Yet it remains attractive. Kamil Julian, curator, critic, Warsaw
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TOMEK BARAN
1985 born in Stalowa Wola, PL
2005 - 2010 Academy of Fine Arts, painting department, Krakow, PL,
diploma in painting, Prof. Andrzej Bednarczyk
Lives and works in Krakow, PL
Exhibitions
2012 Xanax, Strabag Kunstforum, Vienna, A
Minus painting, Le Guern Gallery, Warszaw, PL
Playroom -Patrick Schmierer, Tomek Baran, Knoll Galerie, Vienna, A
Inspiration, MDS Gallery, Wroclaw, PL
The more abstract art becomes, the more it becomes art, Bestregarts, Frankfurt am Main, D
2011 Drinking songs, AS Gallery, Krakow, PL
40th Painting Biennale Bielska Jesieñ, BWA Bielsko Bia³a, PL
10th Geppert Competition, What does a painter do ?, Gallery Awangarda, Wrocław, PL
2010 The best diPloma of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Gallery Zielona Brama, Gdañsk, PL
Chopin in the City, intervention in public space, KBF (Krakow Festival Office), Krakow, PL
2009 Mr. Baran Painting a Wall, intervention in a private apartment, Krakow, PL
Exhibition I, The Campaigne for Revaluating Abstraction, F.A.I.T. Gallery, Krakow, PL
Jeune Création Européenne, Montrouge, F
2008 Half-way point, Otwarta pracownia, Krakow, Pl
