POINT OF VIEW
Seoul-Busan-Seoul
This exhibition is the result of several trips the artist made to South Korea, the last of which he considered as an artistic residency. With Seoul-Busan-Seoul he aimed to show the simplicity of things: empty spaces, narrow streets stuck between tall buildings, light reflections on automatic machines, bottles on restaurant tables... In this new body of work, Toma Jankowski has made the most trivial objects and places more appealing by recontextualizing them outside our common perception. A long-time connaisseur of the country, he uses his position as a foreigner to cast an outsider’s eye on what he believes no Korean sees or looks at.
Toma Jankowski draws on a wide range of references: his colourful creations, worked in gouache and collage on canvas, are like puzzles - ranging from Korean culture to contemporary art, nature, and everyday life. He takes his inspiration from jazz, traditional masks, folk customs, and typography to create a complex, ever-changing universe - typical of the artist’s vocabulary and imbued with great sensitivity and sincerity. Seoul-Busan-Seoul will also present the artist’s personal sketchbooks that followed him throughout his journey.
Paris, May 2023
2020
Old plans of plastic factories found by chance become the starting point of his approach: geometric and structured compositions are upset by external elements (drawings, collages) which disturbs the harmony.
Between research and improvisation, Toma Jankowski summons what he calls "fragments" of materials. Patterns, signs and numbers will gradually emerge on the wooden planks he uses as a support. His primary desire is not to be in pure meaning but rather to draw from classic references and use them as pretexts for creation.
Greek anatomies with the most classic craftsmanship are undermined by fragments of the contemporary world: scraps of advertising and cinema posters give free rein to painting and drawing.
Each work by Toma Jankowski is full of elements that allow us to see and think. Like a puzzle missing key pieces, it is now up to the viewer to build and complete his own story.
Between painting and drawing, Toma Jankowski explores the possibilities of an open work. Influenced by jazz and improvised music, he plays with chaotic forms and elaborate compositions. His work is drawing for its direct aspect of transcription of an intention and painting in terms of materials and format. It was after studying Design that he decided to look for a means of exploring possibilities of improvisation through painting. He then actively collaborated in a collective gathered around improvisation and encountered problems linked to creative “protocol”.
In search of a happy accident, his works are stretched between the representation of a world in perpetual change and a requirement specific to painting itself as a sensitive organism.