Art Review: West Loop Trilogy — Part 1 (EC Gallery) by Jeffery McNary

West Loop Trilogy – Part 1
Contemporary Figuratively Themed Works
EC Gallery
Chicago
December 11, 2009 – January 9, 2010

It’s as if couriers have arrived, delivering storms of color and skillfully engineered works to the EC Gallery. With the current exhibition, “Contemporary Figurative Themed Works”, curator Ewa Czeremuszkin, has re-collected and filled full her right-size gallery with the art of both Tadeusz Bilecki and Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut. There’s a bright lawlessness in these handful of paintings, stimulating the senses, and suddenly enabling the visitor to exhale, and to glide from the everyday.

“The paintings, currently exhibited, belong to the ‘Pisz litery’ (‘Write letters’) series. The leading subjects are letters, which I sometimes see in advertisement photography or on billboards”, says Czeremuszkin-Chrut. “My work is very intuitive. I quickly draw specific lines which are my first concept, and which later on I change hundreds of times.”

“Fall Back”, acrylic and oil on canvas’, brings the viewer broad brush strokes blending color, grays and blues forced into purple. There are deep scratches topside through the layered paint. There’s washed pink near its heart with dark, questioning droplets directing toward the deep, the regal purple, the wondering, before shouting loudly, ‘where are you going?’, spreading its fever.

“The, ‘Fall’, series touches upon the topic of two people coexisting and the resulting psychological supremacy of one of them over the other”, the artist shares. “From these, risky combinations and contrasts of colours arise, which only seemingly do not go together.” These works do not wait around for the viewer to catch up. They’re off and fluid and one need leap in front of them.

Her, “Fell Down”, mixed media, brings more purple, and scraping on a broad swath of brown. There are written letters between two figures in this work. “I am often inspired by press, photography and lettering. However, I am not interested in the messages they carry. I dissect them, strip them of their meaning while giving them a new one,” explains. “The elements of lettering included in my works have no communicative value whatsoever, but only a visual one. In a way, they are a manifestation of the modern world. Images just fall into my head and evolve into new ideas.”

The ineluctable works of Tadeusz Belecki are both bold, powerful and have visited upon the gallery in the past. There’s an intriguing texture and immense dimension to his works. They embrace back and kick high. “There are influences, on every moment. They sometimes change the whole artistic searching process. Sometimes even in a drastic way. The influences come from art history or every day life,” he says. His stirring pieces are washed and dreamlike.

“The choice of colours is the result of an evolution, a research process which is always changing, sometimes in an unexpected way. More and more often, there are violent combinations of colours, sometimes accidental,” he continued. “Before, there were more thoughtful, calm, esthetic combinations of colours. Before, I was in search of harmony and balance. Nowadays, the colours I am using are more nervous, stressful, more chaotic.”

Czeremuszkin-Chrut meets that with a game changing, “The limitation of colours? I want my paintings to become sterile, monochrome and very economical. I am also planning to go back to mural painting of large format – contact with a wall arouses very different emotions in a spectator as well as in the artist…texture and scale of a wall are a huge challenge.”

Bilecki’s phenomenal, “The Apparition of the Geisha –suite”, acrylic on paper strayed early on from ready made shades in grid and forethought. The works are pastel like. They are comfortable in the conviction and flavor.

He does not fight for change or evolution in these works. “It is not useful”, he shares. “The need to create, artistic searching is much stronger of me. I am doing it during my whole life, and it is a long time since I stop from thinking about the use of creating, if the creation act is helping me or the other way round.”

Czeremuszkin-Chrut convictions sway differently. “Fighting is involved in each of my paintings because most of them are created through multiple changes of decisions regarding the way of painting (which leads to over painting as a consequence). When matter resists, rivalry and competition are born. The painting resists and demands; it does not allow me to ‘break’ it and shape it.”

Giving thought to future works she sees,”… evolution, and I carry out this process on purpose. I am interested in endless synthesis of human form, in making its personality traits disappear completely, “she says. “I aspire to create a new and individual human form – my own human form. Apart from anonymity, also biology characterized by hidden sexuality, is important to me. I would like to make my work deeper in a psychological sense: a human being as an anonymous entity and at the same time as embodiment of the crowd.”

“I like it very much to observe the evolution of my work, but only when observing the work already done (as if this was already historic)”, says Bilecki. “I never think about it when creating or when preparing my future art works. I have no idea! I leave it, the theoretic art, to redactors and great philosophers, as for instance you,” he shares in jest, “You always have a global look. I don’t.”

www.ec-gallery.com

CONTEMPORARY FIGURATIVE THEMED WORKS: Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut, Tadeusz Bilecki

(Chicago) The EC Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition featuring selections of the gallery's contemporary figurative-themed works. An opening night reception will be held at the gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Friday, December 11, 2009 from 5-9 PM. “These highly imaginative works present powerful expression and dynamic composition”, said Ewa Czeremuszkin, curator and gallery owner.

Included are three large oil paintings of Agata Czeremuszkin-Chrut, featuring semi-abstract figure poses, and “The Apparation of a Geisha Suite”, of Swiss based artist, Tadeusz Bilecki, a large scale acrylic. This exhibition highlights Czeremuszkin-Chrut's and Bilecki’s styles. They reflect the nature of the artists, with use of bold color and powerful expression and they invite the viewer to explore the variety of the pieces and their formats.

Agata’s works do not present philosophical or theoretical background. She purposefully eliminates attachments to her paintings, achieving a pure sense of each work. Her strokes, and each extended line or figure, are elements in the temporal evolution of the work. Each has its own specification, each its own character. Her style has been described as a mixture of the new figurative representation and geometric movements of the 20th century, when color was the most important. Agata’s main theme has remained the same - the human body, the works evolving clearer and cleaner as she developed with her work and inspiration.

The prolific Tadeusz Bilecki’s manipulation of elements—the paint itself, its application, and its support—in addition to his attention to the color of a painting’s are boldly reflected in his works. His pieces are characterized by continuous, multiple repainting. His works establish a pattern as if the action itself is indisputably the motive for search after a form which can be modified without any limits in a variety of media and formats. Bilecki uses a mixture of techniques and materials (metal/paper or ceramics/fabrics).

Czeremuszkin-Chrut resides in Poland, and received her MFA from the The Academy of Fine Arts in Poland, Wroclaw in 2008. She is the recipient of the 2007 scholarship UE Socrates-Erasmus -Edinburgh College of Art. She has had solo exhibitions at Sienna Center Gallery, Warsaw, Poland; Dluga Gallery, Poland and EC Gallery, Chicago.

Bilecki’s work has been exhibited at Honen-In Gallery, Kyoto; Calibri Gallery Osaka; and AF Gallery Colombo, and other places. He received his MFA from The Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland in 1976.

For further information and/or images, please contact the gallery at info@ec-gallery.com or 312.850.0924.

Urban Abstractions: Photo Show

Ewa Czeremuszkin

Paul Kowalow

October 16 - November 28, 2009

Opening reception:

Friday, October 16, 6-9pm

In conjunction with the Chicago Artists Month, EC Gallery is pleased to present “Urban Abstractions-PhotoShow”, an exhibition by Chicago photographer's Ewa Czeremuszkin and Paul Kowalow. Architecture and urbanism, and the opportunities the cityscape provides for photographers to explore visual experimentation and abstraction, will be the subject of an exhibition on view at the EC Gallery from October 16 through November 28, 2009.

This exhibition shows visual exploration of the urban environment of Chicago and New York. Both artists are inspired by fast living pace, rapid urbanisation and the aesthetics of the abstract painterly plains of the cityscape that from their artworks, viewers can easily find the stunning visual totems of the urban jungle. A series of images show their unique ability to find beauty which other eyes may regard as trash.

Czeremuszkin is both a painter and a photographer, and these identities influence one another in her works. Visual icons such as the street grids, skyscrapers, reflections in nighttime store windows, and the city’s almost hallucinogenic network of lighted signs propelled her to capture the metropolis as pure visual form.

Kowalow's passion in photography has always been a desire to create work of art by capturing an ordinary still subject and bringing it to life. His latest works demostrates how Chicago's downtown concrete jungle with an overwhelming symmetry and relentless repetition encased in glassy surface can be transposed to a captive art form.
An alumni of the New York Institute of Photography, Paul has been experimenting with photography since late childhood. Although he learned photography using black & white film and color transparency, he now shoots almost exclusively in digital medium. Digital imaging has undoubtfully revolutionized the art of photography by giving him more creative control and freedom in perfecting his technique.

Ewa Czeremuszkin was born in Poland in 1974. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poland in 2000 with a degree in Fashion Design. Since then she has exhibited widely and her works can be found in many private collections in United States, Germany, Poland and Sweden.

Paul Kowalow is an MBA graduate from California Coast University in Santa Ana and holds a Computing Science degree from Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC. A native of Poland, Paul lived in Germany, United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. He now lives and works in Chicago, USA.

Portrait of the Gallery: EC Gallery

Jul27

Portrait of the Gallery: EC Gallery

Galleries & Museums, West LoopAdd comments

Agata Czeremuszkin

Nestled in the trendy West Loop-Fulton Market District is one of the city’s newest delights, Ewa Czeremuszkin’s EC Gallery. Here, where the cool mesh with the seasonal; here, where Oprah works and hosts her tent show, Ms. Czeremuszkin grows her dream. In less than a year she has presented one group and four solo exhibitions of new and mid-career abstract painters. Most happen to be either Polish, like her, or trained at academies in Poland.

Czeremuszkin, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland, holds a masters degree in painting. The simple elegance of the petite EC Gallery, approximately eighteen-feet square, adjoins her studio, and is “a dream of mine being fulfilled,” she says. “This is my life. As an artist I wanted to promote other artists, given the difficulty of placing in galleries. I have selected those who, in my view, merit an exhibition.” She continues, “I have connections and knowledge of European artists who’ve shown in Europe, but not here. So it’s an opportunity both for them to show in the U.S. and for a U.S. audience to see their work.”

One painter to whom the EC has given voice is the prolific Swiss artist Tadeusz Bilecki. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, his bold colors and large format paintings illuminated the intimate space with just six works. “The Apparition of a Geisha Suite,” with its visibly over-painted, layered compositions of acrylics on translucent polyester and paper, filled and enlivened the walls of the ‘gallery box’ with its vaulted ceiling. “I saw his work as something that was fresh, different. I’d never seen something like that. It is close to my vision for the place,” Czeremuszkin commented.

Beata Garanty

Currently works by Jola Jastrzab, another Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow alumni, decorate the exposed brick walls of the gallery. Her minimalist-abstracts hold few lines and singular color. They strive to electrify a style of hieroglyphs and allegorical concepts minus the parables that may well define such pieces. Her brush strokes tend to bash the canvas and paper, with such works fitting well, in both style and substance in this hip, up-close engagement.

In its brief tenure on the scene, EC has presented the work of Alina Ignatowsky, photographer Paul Kowalow, and a group show including the work of Beata Garanty, Agata Czeremuszkin (Ewa’s sister), and Czeremuszkin herself, whose ethereal work has clear influences of Rothko and Cy Twombly.

All art Polish, however, is not her mantra. The artist/dealer backs away from the works of radical artist Artur Zmijewski and his current movement in Poland. “When I look at something, as an aesthetic person, I enjoy looking at the latest stuff, but I don’t like sad art, tragedy. Art,” she says, is for people to enjoy. Life is sometimes so sad, people should have something to enjoy.”

Big plans for future exhibits are in the works. “I’m always looking for something new, something international, something not shown in other places,” she added. “And this location is just great for art. It’s close to home,” she laughs. (Jeffery McNary)

EC Gallery is located at 215 N. Aberdeen

Jola Jastrzab _ Crazy Julka _ June 26 - August 15, 2009

 

Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 2009, 6-9 pm

 

EC Gallery is pleased to present "Crazy Julka", Jola Jastrzab's first solo exhibition in the United States. Jastrzab's series of drawings expands on her use of the human figure as a subject and tries to achieve nonrepresentional constructions by using the language of expression.

The drawings by Jola Jastrzab presented at the exhibition, unusually economical and lacking the traces of used tools seem to prove that she has accepted drawing as the most compact way of describing the World. Hence the human figure presented in her works in a dramatic, expressive way, usually restricted to a few lines and stains and abstaining from the temptation to define the detail and use portrait elements in the composition which allow to distinguish other characters in her drawings. It is not the author's aim to talk about the human condition by through examples.  Rather her creative endeavor concentrates on the efforts to find equivalents of pure energy. She tries to bring to life a type of hieroglyphs of abstract concepts instead of looking for their allegories or creating parables about them. 
The other characteristic of Jastrzab's drawings is the color which frequently camouflages the differences between her paintings and her drawings.

Jastrzab is distinguished not exactly by her urge to organize the language of art with all its relevant grammar, but rather by her inclination to contain even the most dramatic message in the most economical form. She consistently purifies and eliminates. 
Only those elements of which presence creates the work of art remain in her drawing.

 

Jola Jastrzab(b. 1971, Poland) lives and works in Poland. She received her PhD (2004) and MFA (1998) from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (Katowice branch), Poland. Recent exhibitions include The Newest Art Trienale- Konduktorownia Gallery, Polan; PROFIL - Gallery of Contemporary Art - Poznan, Poland; Mandala Club - Warsaw, Poland ;Art Nova 2 Gallery - Katowice, Poland.

For more information please contact the gallery.

Tadeusz Bilecki

PREMIER AMERICAN EXHIBITION AT EC GALLERY

Swiss Artist Tadeusz Bilecki to Exhibit New Works in First U.S. Showing

 

CHICAGO – EC Gallery is pleased to present contemporary artist Tadeusz Bilecki at the EC Gallery, 215 N. Aberdeen, Chicago, IL, opening May 15 through June 20, 2009. 

 

Central to the exhibit is his, “The Apparition of a Geisha_suite”, a bold , 150 x 200 cm acrylic on paper. “This new exhibition defines Bilecki’s style because it not only reflects the nature of the artist, with his use of color and powerful expression”, says Ewa Czeremuszkin, EC Gallery Director, “it invites the viewer to explore the variety of the pieces and their formats, including applying color to translucent polyester and paper.”

 

Within Tadeusz Bilecki’s work is the dramatic layering process which allows line and form to emerge.

 

Hailing from Switzerland, Tadeusz Bilecki received his MFA in 1976 from the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland. He has recently exhibited in Honen-In Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, and Calibri Gallery, Osaka, Japan. This is his initial showing in the United States.

 

For Further information on Tadeusz Bilecki or any of our artists, please visit www. ec-gallery.com

 

 

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