Piotr Lutynski @ Art in General

Piotr Lutynski, Planet New York, 2007

Art in General
79 Walker Street, New York, NY 10013-3523
tel. (212) 219-0473
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 12-6 PM

Piotr Lutynski (b. 1962 in Tychy, Poland) tends to involve animals in his work, and has in the past installed living goats, birds, horses and carp in galleries. He juxtaposes these creatures with unexpected elements such as music and food as well as the more traditional gallery fare of geometric paintings. His installation at Art in General includes live fish, a video projection of the glittering New York City skyline at night and a gilt mural reminiscent of medieval or early Renaissance painting. The opening of the exhibition will also be accompanied by a performance by Diana Dyjak Montes de Oca and a series of concerts given by the artist and other invited musicians.

Through his work – which intentionally incorporates an absurd yet evocative mélange of elements – Piotr pays homage to Dadaism, and in particular Kurt Schwitters. He cites an epiphany several years ago that profoundly changed his practice: he was wading through grain one sunny day during harvest season in Germany while considering abstract painting, and the relationship between nature and culture presented itself as his muse. Since then, through the uncanny combination of unconventional components in his art, Piotr has been exploring a litany of metaphysical questions: What exactly is perception? What constitutes the experience of art? What is the relationship between egg shells, grains, bees, beeswax and abstraction? What is the difference between an art gallery, a zoo and nature? And how is it that animals improve human observational faculties and cause people to focus, and as a result see more?

Piotr Lutynski was born in 1962 in Tychy, Poland, and graduated from the University of Silesia in 1990. A painter, sculptor, installation artist, performer, and composer, he creates "total musical and visual shows". Goats and birds appeared in his exhibition Bird Column Project (2003), horses in Between a horse and a painting (2003) and carp in Music for Fish (2005). He is fascinated by natural materials, folklore and the First Avant-garde. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and had solo exhibitions in Krakow’s leading venues, including the Bunkier Sztuki, Starmach and Zderzak galleries, and at Warsaw's renowned Foksal Gallery. He lives and works in Krakow.

I think that there is no art so high that it cannot belong in a hen house. There are no wrong places, only wrong patterns and habits of man. – Lutynski (from an interview with curator Joanna Zielinska)

Piotr Lutynski’s residency is part of Art in General’s Eastern European Residency Exchange, which gives artists the opportunity to create a new work and to meet and interact with art communities in Eastern Europe and New York City. Piotr Lutynski’s residency at Art in General is presented in collaboration with the Bunkier Sztuki gallery in Krakow, Poland, and is made possible thanks to the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

MORE ABOUT PIOTR LUTYNSKI http://www.polishculture-nyc.org/lutynski_more.htm