NY 

Iwo Zaniewski's painting, NY, is rendered with what seems to be oil pastels, dominated by dark shades juxtaposed against vibrant patches of colour. The rough texture and bold strokes give the scene an unsettling feeling. The composition is divided between the interior of a room, with two figures – one on a laptop, the other playing guitar, and a cityscape visible through a large window. This division creates a tension between private and public realms, or the individual versus the collective experience of urban life. The structure invites us to reflect on semiotics, where colours and shapes act as signs. Zaniewski plays with the familiar codes of urban life. The cityscape, rendered in muted greys, meets the domestic interior, with its bursts of red and orange. It’s as though Zaniewski prompts us to question how we construct our realities, both individually and collectively. The artwork challenges fixed perspectives. Zaniewski blurs the boundaries between reality and representation, prompting us to consider how we interpret and assign meaning.