Touc a Landscape H 01

Can you touch a landscape painting?
Can a landscape painting change like a natural landscape does?
Can a landscape painting resonate with a sound?

We perceive both the natural landscape and the painted landscape with the sense of sight. The artist in the 'To Touch A Landscape' series departs from the convention of landscape painting and urges us to expand our perception. He avoids the term 'paintings' and calls his works 'objects'. The title of the exhibition contains the ambiguity of the verb 'to touch'. By creating objects with a very rich, almost relief-like structure, the artist encourages the observer to touch. He himself touches upon the subject of landscape in many ways, studying multisensory perceptions through abstract objects.

The landscape is not static - the wind moves the clouds, the light creates shadows, it is reflected in the water, there are reflections. Similarly, Jarosław Filipek's landscapes change when the viewer moves. They change dynamically when we get closer to the work, we shift the viewing perspective, we look at an angle. The artist achieves the effects of variability thanks to the play of light and a unique painting technique, combining structural forms created by mixing acrylic binder with sand and by using his own paints and varnishes. Textures create shadows, surfaces covered with metallic paints - iridescence, covered with fluorescent paints - glow; they glisten with the use of varnishes with a high level of light reflection, become dull when light-absorbing components are being applied, suggest satin.

The variety of surfaces produced in this way may be related not only to the sense of sight, but also of touch. The artist encourages touching. He points out that sensitivity to external stimuli depends on our concentration. When we close our eyes for a moment and focus on tactile sensations, we get to know objects deeper. The concept of the exhibition also involves displaying objects flat, on platforms, so that the viewers can walk around them and touch them freely, feel the roughness of the textures, the slippery of shiny surfaces, the satinness of matte surfaces, and pricks of convexities.

The horizon is the leitmotif of all objects. An abstract line that appears on every work, in the exhibition hall and in exhibition catalogs. Each painting is strung on this abstract landscape marker. The horizon in each of the exhibited works is at eye level. Pictures create rhythm, thus referring to music, to the sounds we hear while communing with landscapes. Sounds (the artist collaborates with jazz musicians) add another layer of perception. The compositions of the works are built using the rhythm of forms, accents, contrasts - they are abstractly encoded sounds. By moving your hand over the object, you hear the sound.

The multisensuality of the reception of objects by Jarosław Filipek aims to persuade viewers to concentrate more in communing with nature. In nature the artist sees the most perfect primal state. He suggests that we slow down, stop, and touch the surrounding us beauty. With all your senses.