“I consciously focus on non-obvious aesthetics”

Luiza Poreda, 6 May 2021

Michał Ostrowski is an artist of the young generation, born in Warsaw in 1997. He is currently completing his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2018-2021). In his work, he does not seek beauty, but a personal account of reality and the anxieties brought about by the surrounding world. He focuses on redirecting the subconscious to the visual language, and the swirling emotions into matter and bright colors. She paints to surprise herself and is best when she can do it.

– My form of communication resembles a child’s expression. People who taught me before my studies at the academy helped me not to lose my natural method of expression. Unlike a child, I paint this way deliberately and consciously. Compared to many people, I studied academically for a short time and I am glad that at the beginning I met people who made me grounded in my own way of expression. Also at the academy, I gained acceptance for the chosen way of expression – says the painter.

One of Michał Ostrowski’s paintings can be seen in the catalog of the 51st Auction of New Art at the Art in House Auction House.

 

 

As the artist tells us, “Abstract Composition” shows the most frequently intentionally repeated motif in his works – a huge, pushing head.

– It is an important topic for me, because so much can be presented in the eyes, that is the part of the human body from which another person reads someone’s emotions. I also introduced an animal theme in this work – crocodiles that try to suppress the red head that is pushing out. Blue crocodiles, two pairs of eyes, confusion in the background are the motifs that I used to show unreal. I feel that in today’s world one does not always live consciously and I try to notice it. I also feel that many people would like to mentally “eat” others. That is why, without avoiding the childish form, I painted crocodiles who, hidden at the bottom of the painting, are approaching the head – says Michał Ostrowski.

From classic beauty to natural expression

– I have passed the stage in which I tried to capture the nature of man and nature in the classic sense of beauty in my works. It was not a very appropriate direction in developing my work, because in retrospect I know that it is against my nature and beliefs. I do not consciously focus on obvious aesthetics. I think I lost a bit of my development due to what I had contact with at the beginning. I was learning human anatomy, the basics of painting and it was difficult to break free from it, to return to my natural expression. Of course, it developed me and broadened my horizons. Now I feel that I am creating something in harmony with myself, I do not want to follow the basic rules. I don’t feel they have any meaning to me. Modifying characters and deforming them is a conscious process of my creativity, which I came to quite recently – says the artist.

 

 

As he continues, his work is a way to settle accounts with the surrounding, not always light, reality.

– I was born and live in Warsaw, which often overwhelms me – I have never liked huge crowds and noise, I did not feel that I fit into such a life. Years later, I have learned to deal with these stimuli, although I still feel like I have to fight myself in this all the time. Finding myself in a reality that is contradictory to myself is an important topic for me, possibly the most important for me and certainly also for many other people. When I paint, I also think about how people are guided, they don’t think for themselves; I think about losing personality – hence the work with characters with many faces, with too many pairs of hands. They are antagonists of my works, on whom it does not necessarily depend how their story unfolds. These characters are waiting for something or trying to overcome another force – it depends on the specific job. There are also characters who have stepped out of the crowd and took fate into their own hands. I paint them because I want to believe that in the future I will be a more independent person – explains Michał Ostrowski.

 

 

Most of Michał Ostrowski’s works show human or animal profiles. As the artist himself says, he paints “aggressively” because that is how he perceives the world and people around him.

– In my paintings, I present heroes who fight for themselves to win their place in reality. I put it in an abstract form, in which I smuggle in fragments of a reportage about life in the city. It seems to me that the city is not made to be a natural and healthy living environment, but nevertheless it is fascinating to me and stimulates my imagination. I show how hostile people are to each other – hence the aggression in my works, I feel anger and sadness in people passed on the street. Positive emotions are harder to find, I try to show them in the bright colors of my paintings and characters that seem to come from the background to the front – says the artist.

 

 

 

 

Drawings from the subconscious

As Ostrowski says, before he create a painting, he does many sketches, but not with the intention that they should be used to create pictures. Most often, these drawings are created entirely from the subconscious, because the artist does not use visual aids.

– Only later do I choose the elements I like and use them to create the first base for the painting. I feel like I want to add and add something to the work – something that I might call an obsession. Later, I blur various elements again, the earlier characters, the spots of color disappear. Even though my paintings are planned to some extent, I never know what the end result should look like – I feel when I have already included everything I wanted in a given painting. Sometimes I return to my older art works and rediscover them, give them new colors, sometimes I completely change the protagonist of the work.

 

About a personal childhood story

As the artist tells us, he is only at the beginning of his artistic path, and he hopes to end his studies at the Warsaw Academy by showing a series of paintings that will have the most in common with the personal history of childhood – both his own and those he knew closely. What will happen next?

– I am determined that I want to live with painting and develop this topic for the rest of my life. Still my main goal at the moment is to show my work in Poland. In the future, I would like to sell my works also outside of my country. Maybe it’s naive, but I would like to see New York and London, which are the main centers of modern art. I want to see the works of artists who have inspired me throughout my creation. I think that the first presentation of my paintings in space will take place soon, as will the next steps in my career – he sums up.

Visit the gallery of Michał Ostrowski’s paintings.