Przemek Matecki

Przemek (Przemysław) Matecki (b. 1976 in Żagań) is a contemporary painter. In 1997-2002 he studied at the Faculty of Art of the University of Zielona Góra, where he defended his diploma in the studio of Ryszard Woźniak; he is also a co-creator of the musical band Płetwonurki Szczurki and the founder of the „Studio of Mature Creativity”. He lives and works in Warsaw, collaborating with, among others, Tomasz Ciecierski and the galleries Raster (Warsaw), Carlier Gebauer (Berlin) and Hollybush Gardens (London).

Matecki's painting derives from the tradition of Robert Rauschenberg and the punk aesthetic: into the dense texture of oil paints the artist glues elements of mass culture - newspaper cuttings, found photographs, reproductions of others' works - colliding the abstract matter with quotations from current visual culture. His art can be radical and vulgar, it flirts with politics, and at the same time betrays a non-academic tenderness for the painted image.

Matecki's best-known cycle is „Small Paintings” (2016-2018, over 600 works in a format up to 20 × 20 cm), which first „revealed themselves” on his Instagram like a painterly diary. Leafing through many-kilogram heaps of superfluous catalogues and art magazines, the artist gave the reproductions new life, transforming them into enigmatic and playful miniature oil paintings - playing with the works of Michelangelo, van Gogh, Strzemiński or Bacon on a principle close to internet memes. His works have been shown by, among others, the Zachęta in Warsaw, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art and the Raster Gallery; in 2015 they entered the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.