The theme of my exhibition is portrait. I’ve been painting them continuously from the 3rd year of studies. My initial work associated with this genre of painting did not differ much in principle from the classic portrait which we know from the history of painting or functional photography. The idea was to paint psychological portraits, but actually I treated them as a form of typical exercise, aimed at exploration of the topic, as well as search for technical solutions that would help me arrive at the best form of expression. In time, however, I began to experiment with works that I already finished, repainting them in many different ways, because the traditional approach seemed not really interesting to me. In this way, through a number of attempts, in fact fun, I came up with the idea for a whole new way of imaging and approaching the portrait. I was less and less interested in the similarity of the models and attempts to reproduce their full characters. More important for me were experiments on the plane of the painting, application of successive layers of glazes and technical limitations of oil painting. I decided to give up on painting specific images (face, eyes) and focus more on the situation and mood that accompanies them. The figures in my paintings are often posed with their backs to the viewer, so that it is impossible to recognize the person portrayed. I finally realised that subconsciously, as an inspiration, I choose photographs in which you cannot meet the eyes of the portrayed person, for it not to distract the viewer. This way, I managed to achieve a bit mysterious mood. Following with one’s eyes from one canvas to another, one can feel like a voyeur. One can watch the portrayed people without any inhibition, which makes it easier to notice subtle formal solutions, and often highlighted errors resulting from imperfections of photography, which is always the starting point for my paintings.
Marcin Zaborski

Marcin Zaborski, graduate of the Faculty of Painting in Toruń. Cultural scholarship of the President of the City of Toruń in 2014. Participated in numerous group exhibitions and painting open-airs. In 2012 he received the Stanisław Borysowski Award for the best painting of the academic year 2011/2012. In the same year, he took the second place in the Competition for Young Artists “Untouchable”, organised during the Mediations Biennale 2012. Scholarship of the City of Szczecin in 2007.

Opening of the exhibition: September 30th, 2014, 5pm
During the opening, there will be a concert:
Georg Philipp Telemann Canonical Sonata
performed by: Zofia Ilnicka – flute, Jakub Wosik -violin
(Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz)