Tomek Kowalski - illumistein-nt

concrete art, painting, sculpture

The light changes everything.

The mysteries of the dark are given new light and belonging.

What is heavy is transformed into lightness.

Latest Exhibition:

THE MYTHS OF YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW

between the past and the future is NOW

How can we find our place between sacrum and profanum, given the destruction and suffering of the contemporary world?

How can we think our mythologies anew?

Where does our search for myths that are adequate for now and the future lead?

My answer to these questions is the way of abstraction: where fixed definitions and frameworks dissolve, leaving space for new. In this process, the human being is given an opportunity to discover their individual identity anew and to search for their own creation myths – a chance to express and connect with the eternal rhythms of nature.

In the exhibition, you’ll find a broad palette of sculptures, objects, and paintings that connect man-made materials like concrete and metal with natural, driftwood forms and transformatory processes of oxidation.

ALL INFO [DE/EN]

Full interview [DE/EN]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV11BsxFoT0&list=PLgb5wKuqhFiwbPIjPl6AKPTnREOH-HoPv&index=1

concrete + light

rust + transformation

creation + destruction

everything is illuminated

the same sun that’s inside me

illuminates the whole earth

tears of rain revive life

with an open flesh of the heart

I throb the same rhythm as

Everything

- I lost the key to my house [...]
a poem by Tomek Kowalski

illumistein - from "illumination" and "stone" (German: "Stein").

Even the smallest stone we encounter on our way through this world carries in itself the whole story of the Earth - and of Life that has emerged on it. The sunlight, that cast light on the formation processes of this planet, illuminates us still. In that way, we all carry the billions of years of history that have brought us to this moment - and each time we take "the usual" into our hands, it can serve as a reminder.

An echo of the Big Bang, that also lives in us...

This is the idea behind illumistein: To discover the forgotten wonder anew.

In my artistic search, I deal with transformations - of matter, of perception, of the human being...

I bring the forgotten mystery of Life back to light.

What drives me in my work:

the search for the uniqueness of everything
following artistic processes that make themselves independent from the creator and elude control
the need for the creative expression of Life - especially in places where oppositions meet
"perfect in imperfect" (wabi sabi)
cyclical processes, like recycling and upcycling