Marek Piasecki’s first exhibition in the UK at Mummery+Schnelle in east London
Andrew Mummery is pleased to announce the first exhibition in the UK of the work of Polish artist Marek Piasecki [1935-2011] A photographer, graphic artist, painter, sculptor, and creator of objects and installations – the most important of which were his successive studios – Piasecki was a truly independent phenomenon who did not fit the mainstream narrative of Polish postwar art. Although his work received some critical attention from the late 1950s into the ‘60s, and he had connections to the 2nd Cracow Group (whose most famous member was Tadeusz Kantor) Piasecki was never a central figure and his decision to move to Sweden in 1967 further distanced him from artistic life in Poland. It was not until a retrospective exhibition was presented at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw in 2008, that the significance and importance of his work to Polish art in the second half of the 20th century began to be recognized.
The exhibition at Mummery + Schnelle has been curated in collaboration with Rafal Lewandowski of Galeria Asymetria in Warsaw, and with the artist’s widow, Mrs Joanna Piasecka. It includes works dating from the late 1950s until Piasecki’s move to Sweden in 1967, focusing on two main areas of his practice, firstly the experimental abstract heliographs and miniatures that excited most critical interest during the artist’s lifetime, and secondly his photographs of dolls and of his extraordinary studio in Cracow. An essay by art historian Maggie Iversen accompanies the exhibition.