A multidisciplinary artist working with traditional mediums as well as installations, photography and digital processing, Art Golacki was born in Wroclaw, Poland where he also accomplished a Master Degree in Fine Arts.
Since being granted a British citizenship in 2006 he lives and works in United Kingdom, currently in Millport, Scotland.
A great adherent of Buddhist philosophy , Art believes that through inherited or taught pattern of constant judging and labelling we are unintentionally preventing ourselves from seeing primordial, empty nature of everything. His work is an ongoing inquiry into whether it is possible to share the unanswerable questions through the intuitive artistic narrative.
Art prefers to follow the clarity of vision rather than cultivating uniform visual style, a sort of sophisticated trap as he see it, leading to perhaps recognition and commercial success but also able to corrupt the true creativity.
He quietly admire multidimensional genius of Leonardo da Vinci and eclectic approach of Damien Hirst.
In 1983 Art took part in forming group L U X U S (luxury), notorious for mixing elements of pop art, dada and defiantly rejecting the codes of dominant art.
During the peak of social and political unrest of their country the group employed fast medium to share their views in form of periodically created Magazine Luxus, with each member committed to production of 30 identical made by hand pages, unintentionally introducing for the very first time in Polish arts the medium of stencil.
Their collective exhibitions were usually supported by temporary installation made up of cardboard boxes, children’s toys, tasteless house decorations, et cetera.
In 2013 the group has been recognised as the mainstream of Polish 80-ties avant-garde movement and hosted their 30 anniversary over 4 floors of Wroclaw’s Museum of Contemporary Arts.
The trimmed version of this event also toured a number of European museums.
Between 1985 and 1988 Art actively formed the core of K O R M O R A N Y (cormorants) group, the flexible assemble of industrial music movement fanatics, particularly influenced by sound of Test Dept, Laibach and especially unconventional Einstürzende Neubauten.
Their gigs were organised ad hoc and advertised only by word of mouth for dedicated army of like-minded fans. The usual venues were chosen for their unique spatial and acoustic quality and included dysfunctional water tower or abandoned since second world war military underground tunnels.
While performing the only consistency required from participants was to make a continuous, intuitive, pulsating noise sometimes enriched by pre-recorded sound and projection of slides or film.
Despite the determination to thrive in underground the group had been acknowledged elsewhere in Europe and invited to tour the former Yugoslavia in 1987 (a short excerpt from the gig in Mostar to view) and a year later performed in spacious hall of National Museum in Wroclaw.
While exploring unusual locations during his collaboration with Kormorany, Art developed a keen interest in creating a site-specific S T R I N G I N S T A L L A T I O N S
What started as a very basic decorative form developed over the next years into more complex compositions.
Taking advantage of the strength of heavy duty acrylic string allowed him to construct the installations capable to support the weight of the human body.
Finally the whole experience led in 2002 to collaboration with performance artist in creating a piece titled Passer by in Area 10, the large complex of vacant warehouses temporary assigned by London’s Peckham council to the artistic activity.
The installation was spread over two floors high space and needed a few weeks to be assembled.
A short film also titled Passer by integrated seamlessly the poetry of both, the performance and the installation.
Since moving from London to one of the Scottish islands in 2015, overwhelmed by richness of nature, Art rediscovered his interest in P H O T O G R A P H Y
Uncanny resemblance of dramatic shapes of leafless, winter trees to our own cardiovascular and nervous systems inspired his ongoing project Talking Trees, dedicated to rise awareness of similarity and direct or indirect interdependency of
all living organisms.
His parallel photographic concept Still Life emphasise, apart from philosophical
context, the continuity and relevance of Old Masters works.
Purposely created temporary A S S E M B L A G E S have played an equal part in conveying the overall meaning of the final images.
While utilising a digital camera, Art experiments extensively with old types of
manual lenses and long time exposure method.
Art has established his artistic style in terms of classic, two dimensional visual language in early 80-ties, while study in Wroclaw’s Academy of Arts.
Under guidance of professor Konrad Jarodzki he started to experiment with incorporating photographic images into his paintings.
The true turn came since Art discovered by accident that it is possible to remove parts of the ink from the pages of glossy magazines with ordinary pencil eraser or very fine sand paper.
By partially disintegrating the intended narrative of the original image Art created a kind of an open field to be explored by his imagination. It was not much about a new narrative but rather exercise in letting imagination work intuitively without any restrictions.
This had resulted in fusion of realistic and abstract content and could be closely associated with surrealism or magic realism art trends.
The perfect blending executed in classic oil paint medium was essential in achieving seamless photo-like quality in finished artwork.
Since, at that time, no known artist employed the use of photographic image in such a particular way, Art has decided to distinguish it as G O L L A G E, jokingly describing this now as a hand made proto-Photoshop manipulation.
It was a long standing admiration for Old Flemish Masters, Surrealist movement and also skills of HR Giger whom he met once, to inspire Art to master this process for over thirty years adopting large scale posters, pre-planned prints or simply by recreating briefly initial photo image straight on to the canvas with the help of projector.
The examples of his efforts are encapsulated in project Vivid Imagination
With invention of the Photoshop software and its vast capabilities it was a natural step for Art to continue his creativity in a digital realm.
Computer generated art is still undervalued by most galleries and art critics but for naturally born instigator like Art it is a perfect challenge to prove otherwise.
His latest digital project is dedicated to a renaissance Portrait Masters and will be available in 2021 as limited edition prints.
E D U C A T I O N
1985 Master Degree in Fine Arts at the Faculty of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture,The Academy of Fine Arts, Wroclaw, Poland
G R O U P E X H I B I T I O N S
2019 Red Dot Miami 2019 / Mana Wynwood Convention Center, Miami, USA
2019 Premier Art Award Exhibition London 2019 / La Galleria, Pall Mall, London, UK
2018 Spectrum Miami 2018 / Mana Wynwood Convention Center, Miami, USA
2018 Sunny Art Prize 2018 / Sunny Art Centre, London, UK
2018 Fomenar Verona / Aperto Arte / Group Exhibition, Chiesa di Santa Maria, Verona, Italy
2018 Premio Fomenar 2017 / The Finalists Show / Art Nou Milleni Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2018 The 2017 Chelsea International Photography Competition / The Finalist Show / Agora Gallery, New York, USA
2017 21st National Open Art Exhibition / The Finalists Show / Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank London, UK
2017 Czarna Wiosna / The Black Spring / MWW Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Poland
2017 ViewPoint Gallery International Photo Competition / The Finalists Show / ViewPoint Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2017 D&AD Next Photographer Award Exhibition / The Finalists Show / Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
2016 Dzikie Pola / The Wild West - History of Wroclaw's Avant-Garde / Ludwig Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary
2016 Dzikie Pola / The Wild West - History of Wroclaw's Avant-Garde / Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Croatia
2016 Dzikie Pola / The Wild West - History of Wroclaw's Avant-Garde / Kunstmuseum, Bochum, Germany
2015 Dzikie Pola / The Wild West - History of Wroclaw's Avant-Garde / Kosice's Kunsthalle, Kosice, Slovakia
2015 Dzikie Pola / The Wild West - History of Wroclaw's Avant-Garde / Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
2014 Little Experiment / POSK Gallery at Polish Social and Cultural Association, London, UK
2013 Psychopaper / Pictogram BLA Soho Factory, Warsaw, Poland
2013 Magazyn Luxus / 30th Anniversary of art group Luxus / MWW Museum of Contemporary Art, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Visionaries / Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, New York, USA
2010 Metamorphosis / Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, California, USA
2007 Where Science Meets Art - AOI / The Gallery at Penn College, Williamsport, USA
2007 The Annual Juried Exhibition - AOI / The Mall Galleries, London, UK
2007 The Sensual Nude / Limner Gallery, Hudson, New York, USA
2006 Une Fete Sur L'imagination - AOI / Museum H R Giger, Gruyeres, Switzerland
2005 Inner Eye - AOI / Silos Gallery, Tarifa, Spain
2005 Inner Eye - AOI / Lofthouse Gallery, Rosshaupten, Germany
2005 Inner Eye - AOI / Sala Venere Gallery, Vezzano, Italy
2004 Water - AOI / Lauderdale House, London, UK
2004 Fantastic Visions / Limner Gallery, Hudson, New York, USA
2004 Tawe Pilaku / installation and performance / Gallery 291, Hackney, London, UK
2004 Raw Arts Festival / Candid Arts Trust, London, UK
2003 Brave Destiny - AOI / Diego Victoria Fine Art Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
2003 Brave Destiny - AOI / Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, New York, USA
2003 The Annual Juried Exhibition - AOI / The Gallery in Cork Street, London, UK
2002 Passer by / installation and performance / Area 10, Peckham, London, UK
2002 The Annual Juried Exhibition - AOI / The Gallery in Cork Street, London, UK
2000 The Annual Juried Exhibition - AOI / The Mall Galleries, London, UK
2000 Member of The Society for Art of Imagination - AOI
1992 Pull it / Pull it Gallery, Camden Town, London, UK
1991 Cooltan / Cooltan Factory, Brixton, London, UK
1988 Urban Art / Urban Art Gallery, Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
1988 Luxus fra Polen / Luxus from Poland / Strykejernet, Oslo, Norway
1986 International Poster Biennale / Warszawa, Poland
1986 Ariergarda / BWA, Lodz, Poland
1986 Ekspresja lat 80-tych / Expression of 80's / BWA, Sopot, Poland
1986 Luxus maluje panorame swiata / Luxus paints the World's Panorama / DDK Lesnica, Wroclaw, Poland
1985 Pokaz prawdziwego Luxusu / The Real Luxus Show / BWA, Bialystok, Poland
1985 Popularna Impreza Mlodziezowa / The Popular Teen Show / Centrum Swiatla, Wroclaw, Poland
1983 Member of the art group Luxus formed in Wroclaw, Poland
A W A R D S
2021 The 3rd Place Winner / Abstract Category / Annual Photography Awards 2020 / APA, London, UK
2019 The 4th Place Award / Premier Art Award (London - Kyoto) 2019 / EWAA East-West Art Award
2018 The finalist / Sunny Art Prize 2018 / Sunny Art Centre, London, UK
2017 The finalist / Premio Fomenar 2017 / International Prize of Painting and Photography / Asociacion Cultural Fomenar, Spain
2017 The finalist / 2017 Chelsea International Photography Competition, Agora Gallery, New York, USA
2017 The finalist / 21st National Open Art Exhibition Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, Southbank London, UK
2017 7th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2017 6th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2017 5th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2017 The prizewinner / ViewPoint Gallery International Photo Competition, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2017 4th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2017 The finalist / 2017 D&AD Next Photographer Award, Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
2016 9th 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 8th 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 6th 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 5th 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 The prizewinner / 2nd Annual Figures & Faces International Online Juried Art Exhibition, Fusion Art Gallery, Indian Wells, USA
2016 4th 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 3rd 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2016 1st 2016 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2015 6th 2015 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner / online competition / category: photography
2015 The prizewinner / Still Life Collection of Fifth Annual Exposure Award, SeeMe, New York, USA
2014 The prizewinner / Little Experiment competition, Polish Social and Cultural Association, London, UK
2014 The prizewinner / Art-Competition.net / online juried competition Scape
2004 The prizewinner / Direct Art Magazine competition / volume 11, Hudson, New York, USA
2004 The prizewinner / Beyond Boundaries online competition, Artrom Gallery, Rome, Italy