ARCHIVE EXHIBITION

DISCOVERING WONDERLAND / CZESŁAW CZAPLIŃSKI - ALICJA DOMAŃSKA

Artists: Czesław Czapliński, Alicja Domańska

Venue: Galeria 101 Projekt, Nowy Świat 53

Date: 11.05.- 25.05.2015

"Discovering Wonderland" consists of work done by two artists, combining Czesław Czapliński's photography and Alicja Domańska's painting. The title indicates the artist's attempts in her work to cross the accepted boundaries, and even questioning the possibility of a clear distinction between the visible and the invisible, human and non-human, and especially between emotions and nature.

The words of Leonardo da Vinci -"You do not paint features, you paint what is in your mind" - still echo in my memory, and they were the motto of my first New York exhibition "PORTRAITS" in May 1981.

Combining multimedia has always interested me. Then I went into film. Painters, sculptors and graphic artists used my photos many times. But always after the fact, I wondered how the media connects to the whole, creating something new.

I decided to turn from the beginning to the painter Alice Domanska. I made her a series of nudes that I printed on canvas and gave to her. For several months she thought about them, until she began to paint on them. Unusual effects transitioning right away between realism and abstraction, black and white with color, the delicate with the predatory … leaving much to the viewer's imagination.  

— Czesław Czapliński New York, February 2015

For me it is a journey into the depths of myself, very personal, because at the same time I take on the role of a model treating my body as a tool for expressing emotions as well as being the creator of the paintings, the narrator of the artistic vision, balancing on the verge of ontological dualism. According to Aristotle, only bodies are by themselves. In each of the bodily substances (bodies) two factors can be distinguished – matter (which is the material from which the body is built, chemical elements in today's terms) and form (something, that determines that the given body is what it is, and not something else – something that distinguishes the body from "the soul" and defines the soul as everything that makes inanimate chemical elements a living, sentient and thinking being). It exists only through the body.

— Alicja Domańska Warsaw, March 2015

Czesław Czapliński 

artist, photographer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker, born in 1953 in Lodz (Poland). Since 1979, he has lived in New York and Warsaw.   He is the author and co-author of 40 albums and books, among others: "Face to Face" (1991), "Art of Photography" (2004 ), "Michael Jackson" (2009), "Portraits With History" (2012). Apart from being a photographer, he has also been for many years a journalist, and he is the author of a couple hundred articles and reportages printed in America and Poland. He has had more than 100 photographic exhibitions, among others: in the National Art Gallery Zacheta in Warsaw (1989, 1991), Art Museum in Lodz (1992), National Museum in Warsaw (1995, 2002, 2007), The Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) and also in New York, Chicago, Nice, London, Moscow , Munich, Brussels and Lisbon.   Throughout his 40-year career, he has photographed some of the most well-known celebrities of business, culture, politics, and sport. Among others: Muhammad Ali, Maurice Bejart, Leonard Bernstein, Bernardo Bertolucci, Cindy Crawford, Oscar de la Renta, Catherine Deneuve, Placido Domingo, Umberto Eco, Michael Jackson, Henry Kissinger, Calvin Klein, Jerzy Kosinski, Luciano Pavarotti, Paloma Picasso, Roman Polanski, Isabella Rossellini and Andy Warhol.   Czesław Czapliński’s work has been published all over the world, among others: "The New York Times", "TIME", "Vanity Fair", "The Washington Post", "Newsweek ", "Polityka", "Twój Styl", "Viva ", "Rzeczpospolita". Czapliński’s work can be found in the Library of Congress collection in Washington, D.C., New York Public Library, National Museum in Warsaw and Breslau, Art Museum in Lodz, National Library in Warsaw and in many private collections all over the world.   There are several films about Czapliński and his work: „Opening by Czeslaw Czaplinski in National Gallery Zacheta in Warsaw” (TVP, 1989), „ Photographer” (TVP, 2007), „Face to Face” (TVP 1993), „Black and White in Color” (TVP). Today, he makes documentary films: „Collector” (Copernicus Award - Gold 2012), „Life as a fairy tale”, „The optimist in spite of himself”, "FANGOR The First 90 Years" (2012), "Wizard of The Royal Lazienki in Warsaw" (Copernicus Award - Gold 2014).

Alicja Domańska 

Painter, designer of spaces, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, lives and works in Sopot and Warsaw. Has held exhibitions in Warsaw, Sopot, Gdansk, Cracow, Lodz, as well as in London, Berlin and Stockholm, Grodno, winner of the Sopot Muse in the Field of Culture and arts, works with theatre, fashion designers, musicians, and architects. Believes that art requires adequate exposure and background and that paintings are always an integral part of the entire project. Draws inspiration from reality, processes onto canvas situations, places, dreams, giving them a completely new dreamlike quality. Painting serves as a metaphor of transition, allowing penetration of unrecognized order and submission to the prevailing rules... with emotions playing a major role. The artist is not afraid to experiment, inviting authors from various fields of art to painting projects. These paintings are very sensual and expressive. Her paintings are exhibited in galleries and are in private and public interiors around the world.