Untitled 2013

Rafal Bujnowski’s small, square, untitled painting is made up of horizontal and vertical lines of dark grey and black paint on canvas. Looking at this painting I can imagine Bujnowski in his studio, intensely focused, building up the image stroke by stroke. There is a figure in the foreground and another further out, immersed in water up to its neck. I feel like I’m looking into a scene that is both representational and abstract. It reminds me of Neo Rauch. The repeated horizontal and vertical brushstrokes give the painting an ethereal quality. I love the way the artist has embraced the physicality of the paint, allowing the texture to become part of the image. It’s almost like the artist has built up the scene from a series of hazy memories, and in doing so, he’s tapping into a much bigger conversation about painting itself, and the infinite possibilities of mark-making.