Andrzej Nowicki 'Feldgrau' and ‘Bifrost’
Show invitation and installation view, Bifrost, 2013
Via Poland, South Africa and New York, the now Melbourne-based Nowicki, uses mixed media including pastels, graphite, ink and oils for his current collection, Feldgrau. Inspired by lesser known colours and the 1565 Bruegel work, Hunters in the Snow, Nowicki felt the title Feldgrau – ‘field grey’ – apt, for a show inspired by the outlying corners of the influential painting; and one that exhibits in a wintry June. Larger works, they capture curious landscapes from an indiscernible time, and stories without end, which make you feel the trudging movement in each scene. A figure set against a bleak expanse, shards of colour… the resulting whole, an expressive juxtaposition. With a background in prints, collage, watercolour and gouache, the versatile artist retains his style, retelling histories with foibles from the present.
Opening June, 2012, Feldgrau was Andrzej Nowicki's first exhibition at Chapter House Lane, with his second, Bifrost, opening in February 2013. Whereas ‘myth’ suggests archaic, fanciful beliefs and ‘sci-fi’ the futuristic, the forum for their discussion is often the same as one borrows motifs from the other. Similarly, Nowicki defies real time and with a highly contemporary visual style, recreates images which hark back to the Bifrost Bridge of Norse mythology. In this iteration, Nowicki lays out his scenes like snippets of story, with portraits pulled from the landscapes to build personal dossiers. The nobility of his figures add grandeur to a myth that will no doubt continue to be retold. While Norse strongmen were out ‘viking’, pre-industrial times in the far North required repetitive work by hand and by ‘man’. Reliant on fire for warmth, the actual frost is felt in Nowicki’s mixed media works with crystalline forms replicated in figures and features amid the landscape. Perhaps in response to a cold, monochromatic environment, the Bifrost Bridge was dreamt up in rainbow shades; Nowicki translates this colour in sprays of flowers – a dormant spring floating like a promise across the works.We also featured Nowicki in our exchange with Current Projects in Brisbane as part of the Dispatch program. Now living in New York, you can find updates on the artist's website here.