30 January – 16 March, 2024
Exhibition
Konrad Żukowski
Beacons
January 30 - March 16, 2024
Spencer Brownstone Gallery is pleased to announce Beacons, Konrad Żukowski’s debut exhibition with the gallery. The show features a new series of paintings created during his first year in Paris.
Beacons is primarily composed of portraiture, rendered in Zukowski’s Mannerist style, characterized by elongated forms in an unearthly environment, where the lighting, color and space are surreal. Unlike his past work which was firmly rooted in myth, symbols, and imagination, his new body of work transitions into the real. And despite the dreamlike quality of his style, the subjects are friends, lovers, and the emotional connections developed during his time in Paris and cultivated during the painting process. Behind each portrait is a sitter and a photograph of the sitter, and accompanying the work is a small memento attributed to their story.
“Beacons” refers to the landmark tower of Saint James in Paris, a remnant of the church of St. James of the Butcher, visible from the artists studio window. The hyper-ornate Gothic structure being his own visual memento of his new life in the city, where beacons in the form of new encounters and relationships have manifest.
Artist Bio
Konrad Żukowski was born in Poland and currently lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (2019) as well as the University of Applied Arts in Vienna (2018). Żukowski completed residencies at Cité internationale des arts in Paris (2023) and Pamoja in Athens (2022). His recent solo exhibitions include Heartwood, a collaboration with The Breeder and the Razem Pamoja Foundation held in Athens (2022) and I keep smoking and waiting for everything to burn down at HOS Gallery in Warsaw, Poland (2021). Żukowski's work has been featured in recent group exhibitions such as The Discomfort of Evening at Zacheta - National Gallery of Art (2022) in Warsaw, Poland; In these days of tumult, heat and dazzle, I retreat in my mind at the Stefan Gierowski Foundation in Warsaw, Poland (2021); and Don't panic, kiss me at BWA in Wroclaw, Poland (2021). Additionally, Żukowski has participated in Art Athina with Ewa Opalka Gallery (2023) and Felix with The Breeder in Los Angeles (2023). Konrad Żukowski is the recipient of the 14th Geppert Competition's main prize in Wroclaw, Poland (2023).