BIO
Paweł Nocuń
born in 1971.
Lives and works in Warsaw. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Painting (1999, with award). Employed as assistant professor in the faculty he graduated from where he has also acquired his doctoral diploma.
As an artist he mainly practices painting with oil on canvas. He admits being interested in reflection on human feelings, emotions and behaviours – both in general and personal aspects. His choices of motifs and inspirations often include references to and quotations from the global visual heritage.
The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,
the Faculty of Painting:
2016 - adjunct
2014 - PhD degree
2006 – present (employed)
1994 – 1999 (studied)
ARTIST STATEMENT
My painter’s practice is about inquiring into human nature. I feel fascinated with how it escapes banality. I would like my paintings to give people an opportunity to get an insight into sheer diversity of human characters and attitudes. Whenever you sense your own sensitivity deepen while watching them, my artistic goal is achieved. I think there are chances, even in today’s tough times, that persons who are attentive and sensitive are also, simply, pure and decent people. To me, being decent means sensing tenderness and kindness toward oneself, toward other human beings and any other creatures, as well as to the space that surrounds us.
I mainly paint with oil on canvas, drawing my inspirations from my own experience, but also from phenomena of contemporary as well as past visual culture. In effect, my emotions co-exist in my paintings with quotations from photographs, movies, other artists’ works. From Prince Siddhartha / Buddha, through Diane Arbus, to my Bodyscapes and Facescapes series – this is always about being amazed with extraordinary human nature where the good becomes reflected in evil and atrocity stands right next to beauty.
WORKS
2021 - 2023
a series of works entitled “Facescapes” – paintings about human relationships, the untold, hidden in glances
2018 - 2023
a series of works entitled "Bodyscapes" - paintings about the need for closeness, tenderness and intimacy
2016 - 2018
a series of works entitled “Canoe path” – paintings about searching for peace and consolation after the turmoil of life
2015 - 2016
a series of four paintings depicting artists
2012 - 2015
a series of works about dreams and imaginations confronted with reality, inspired by the biographies of people such as Arbus, Reinefarth, Kinski, Arendt, Heidegger
2007 - 2012
a series of works about searching for one’s own path, inspired with the life and work of Diane Arbus
2005 - 2007
a series of works about Prince Siddhartha’s decision to quit the life he had lived and set out for a journey in search of truth
1999 - 2005
nudes and paintings with the Buddha's head motif
1994 - 1999
paintings from the period of studies and a diploma series entitled "Heads"
☞ photo credits of the reproductions:
Norbert Piwowarczyk
Adam Gut
EXHIBITIONS
INDIVIDUAL
2024 “Facescape” - Marszałkowska 18 gallery, Warsaw
2020 “Canoe path” - Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw
2017 “Talking with poets on weekends and holidays” - Wystawa gallery, Warsaw
2016 “Anomaly” - CJNJ gallery, Warsaw
2014 “Cynical assassins kill in silence” - Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
2011 “Reconstruction” - basement of the Holy Trinity church, Plac Małachowskiego, Warsaw
2006 “Nocuń - paintings” - basement of the Camaldolese church, Bielany Wood, Warsaw
2002 “Nudes” - U gallery, Warsaw
COLLECTIVE
2020 “What’s your sign?” - Warsaw Rising Museum, Warsaw
2019 “I labirinti” - Laboratorium Venezia, Venice, Italy
2017 “Transition” - Canarys National Art Foundation, Indore, India
2014 “ASP W / WM 15” - Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław
2010 “Painting Space II” - Mazowieckie Centrum Kultury i Sztuki Elektrownia, Radom
2007 “Superfocus, 11 artists from Warsaw” - Poznańska Galeria Nowa, Poznań
2005 “Between the reason and emotion” - SARP pavillion, Warsaw
2000 ZDARZENIA [EVENTS] International Theatre and Visual Arts Festival, Tczew
(award ohonour in the area of painting)