PIOTR UKLANSKI
EXHIBITION DATES
21 SEPTEMBER – 21 DECEMBER 2014
In his first museum show in Dallas, Piotr Uklanski presents a selection of works from his “blood” or “ink drop” paintings—a premier presentation of an ongoing series that began in 2007. While abstract, the works reflect numerous pop culture references that echo throughout Uklanski’s practice, such as the blood-soaked exploitation thriller films of Dario Argento and the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960’s. Varying in material and scale—using Japanese sumi inks or more saturated shellac inks on gesso—the canvases are made using a tedious, hands-on process. Some works are highly structured in a grid-like pattern with limited allowances for the human hand while others are expressive in the tradition of all-over painting. Uklanski’s obsessive and painstakingly repetitive process is rich with allegorical meaning. Layered with the macabre imagery of splattered blood, Uklanski’s ink paintings become a beautiful yet eerie meditation on the passage of time and the inevitable specter of death.