Agata Bogacka at Municipal Gallery Arsenal
CONFLICT ENABLER, Poznań, Poland
I recently heard Agata Bogacka say, "The canvas is great. It lacks nothing." She believes it is complete even before the painting is created, and that in this context, "painting is more of an act of destruction." Despite this, the artist decides to stand before the canvas and undertakes this act.
It's not that Bogacka paints over this support; on the contrary, she reveals it and allows it to speak. She treats the canvas as a medium that guides her and allows her to depict, or rather, crystallize, recognize, or even observe and examine, important issues. This analysis occurs concurrently with the painting process. By exploring the problems of painting, Bogacka reaches the heart of the complex issues of interpersonal relationships.
In her abstract series from recent years, the artist explores the interdependence of forms and, at the same time, the situations we experience. She is interested in the dynamism of the configurations in which we find ourselves in relation to others and the world. The subjects of her paintings are equal patches of color, touching yet simultaneously passing by; they balance, confront, and compete. The planes are cut off from each other, while in other places they completely interpenetrate, losing their boundaries.
In her most extensive series of paintings ( Disagreement ), the tension between those coexisting, or attempting to coexist, within the pictorial field intensifies. This intensifies the rivalry between the paint surfaces we observe (and the artist herself). They compete for influence and for a relationship with the expanse of raw canvas. Bogacka herself wonders whether the patches of color encroaching on the pictorial field seek to obscure the canvas, or, on the contrary, reveal it. We don't know whether we see layers gradually growing, or their peeling away. Similarly, in the Declarations series , the accumulating surfaces seem to emerge before the pictorial field, often revealing themselves as the earliest (furthest) layers of the composition.
This tension, however, is not a preconceived or deliberately undertaken theme. On the contrary, the essence of the artist's aspirations can be illustrated in the work "Equality Dream ," where the colors of the rainbow hide or attempt to emerge and become visible, emancipated. This is also the overarching principle from which Agata Bogacka begins (and to which she would like to lead): the equivalence of the image's elements, their harmony, their understanding. It is reality that comes to the fore, exposing the complexities of interdependence.
Bogacka particularly depicts ambiguous systems, highlighting contradictions, understatements, and illusions. The interrelationships of the planes in her paintings reflect our functioning in life: both on the micro-scale of relationships between individuals, in intimate relationships, and on the macro-scale of situations between groups. They concern current systems, whether they are changing or enduring. These are complemented by titles such as "Declarations ," "Disagreement ," and "Dream of Equality ." All of them can refer to the experiences of both individuals and entire communities. They address personal, social, and political issues, often interchangeably.
The works possess a universal, parable-like quality, stemming from their reliance on dualism and the pulsation at the edge of opposites. Every life problem automatically becomes a painting problem, or vice versa; compositional and coloristic explorations offer the artist insights into interpersonal relationships. The titular conflict doesn't have a negative connotation here. It captures the essence of Bogacka's paintings: the encounter of two worlds, concepts, personalities, two different orders. An encounter that can be both a clash and a bypassing. This conflict is something creative, progressive, something that must be understood and utilized for further development. This conflict is made possible through the medium of painting, through the canvas, which, for Bogacka, serves as the titular activator of conflict, generating it, provoking it, and pushing us to discover its meaning.
Agata Bogacka, CONFLICT ENABLER, installation view, Galeria Miejska Arsenał, Poznań, Poland. © Agata Bogacka. Courtesy of Galeria Miejska Arsenał. Photo by Michał Adamski.
