Okęcie 2017

Paweł Kluza’s ‘Okęcie’ from 2017 looks like it was made with acrylic or maybe gouache on board. The whole piece is a wash of blue and white, the artist making confident decisions about where each mark will sit. I see the artist making a stage set, creating a space where recognizable forms shift in and out of focus. The houses and the buildings are a bit wonky, more cartoonish than photorealistic. And I love the strange little prices floating in the sky – are they flights taking off? Are they thoughts? Kluza seems to be thinking about how we build places through art, thinking about space and memory through the filter of a limited palette. It reminds me a little of Giorgio de Chirico’s dreamscapes with their eerie atmosphere. As viewers, we get to keep the conversation going, making new pictures from old ones! The artist has made a place for us to dream.