3 April 2025

Opening of Paweł Kowalewski's solo exhibition "Eyes Wide Half-Shut" at Galeria aTAK in Warsaw

Paweł Kowalewski. Eyes Wide Half-Shut, 3 April – 26 July 2025. "Eyes Wide Half-Shut" is the title of Paweł Kowalewski's painting exhibition, prepared by Warsaw's Galeria aTAK. The show presents nearly twenty large paintings by the artist from 2019–2025, rooted in the post-conceptual tradition. The canvases are accompanied by elaborate literary commentary, foreshadowed by the poetically formulated titles of the works themselves. Paweł Kowalewski gained recognition at the very threshold of his career and quickly built his status as a classic. In the early 1980s, as a man in his twenties, he became a co-founder and one of the intellectual leaders of the legendary painters' collective GRUPPA (1982–1992). Their activities and exhibitions, both before and during martial law, were impatiently awaited and widely discussed events. Brutal, somewhat roughly painted, they were groundbreaking for Polish art. Paweł Kowalewski is an eternal rebel. He does not easily accept reality; for more than forty years he has closely observed and critically commented on the world around him. He is not swayed by fleeting notions, passing fashions or accepted interpretations. He is deeply preoccupied with the past and the present, and with how they shape our future. As an artist, a person, a humanist, and at the same time an unconventional entrepreneur, patron and benefactor, he travels across many continents and cultures. The result is a body of work that is diverse, interdisciplinary and universal. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in Polish, English and German. Curator: Krzysztof Musiał; catalogue texts: Joanna Kiliszek, Sebastian Preuss.