Michał Malinowski

Michał Malinowski, born in 1980. Self-taught artist – he likes and must create. His main medium is metal – the raw one, processed only by the steelworks, but also the one affected by time, rusted. In his “wire” works, he uses steel rods to create spatial sketches, rather large-sized wall sculptures, telling everyday situations from a slightly different perspective. He is fascinated by the human body, its straight lines and curves, gestures, body communication, as well as the human mental condition and its shades in the context of grey reality. His works are sometimes simple freeze-frames of everyday situations, and sometimes deep reflections on mental states. Sometimes grotesque. He describes the world with the eye of an inquisitive observer, but thanks to the specific universality of the form of communication, he leaves the recipient space for their own reflections, and sometimes he only gently reminds of something, using thin lines and leaving the form open, openwork. With his sculptures, he encourages us to "stop" for a moment to look at seemingly simple situations once again, he deals with what arises from the clash of ordinary everyday life with the world of abstraction, as a field of expression. There is a lot of geometry in his works - shapes, geometric figures are to simplify, close the form, explain the inexplicable. Thanks to the spatiality of these sculptures/paintings, the aspect of playing with light plays a significant role, because most of the works are created to cast a shadow. This play with shadow, which gives the whole a specific character, has different faces, depending on the light used. Malinowski takes a completely different approach to works marked with iron oxide. In the rusty medium, the color (of rust) and its faces seem to be of great importance. The range of themes, which are however united by a common denominator - time - is considerable. In some works, one can feel the burden of struggling with matter and the burden resulting from the medium itself. Objects obtained from scrap yards, waste and everyday objects tell certain stories, and woven into uniform, often flat spaces (sheet metal), they complete the work. In contrast, other works can be light despite the medium, there is a strong organic feel, references to sequences of patterns from the world of nature. The rusting of raw material is often a kind of controlled accident - the process is stopped at the right moment. Inevitably, the colors of rusted forms have more references to painting than to drawing forms, as is the case in his wire sculptures. The objects are no longer so openwork, and the space looks completely different here. However, the artist does not give up geometry, which still seems to be of great importance to him in the context of searching, closing the composition. The direction of the work is no longer so obvious here and intuition rather comes to the fore, which is an important aspect in the process of creative struggles with rust. Rust can be difficult to tame, which is why it can be thankless, marked by spontaneity, not easy to tame. Many of his works from this category ask for further life after the creative process is over. Many of the artist's works are enclosed in oval forms. The triangle and the circle seem to be dominant here, while at other times the form is left open. The works rather have frames enclosed in the above-mentioned shapes.