Bartłomiej Flis

Graduated from the Cyprian Kamil Norwid High School of Fine Arts in Lublin with a specialization in visual advertising and the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź with a degree in painting. Winner of the Prize of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the 11th edition of the competition Best Diplomas of the Academy of Fine Arts (2019). Laureate of the 14th Geppert Competition and Bielska Jesień 2023. He was a participant in many group and solo exhibitions. Abandoning the strategy of overt diarism in his paintings, Flis relies on flat weaves of figures with expressionless faces or pinkish mountains of luminous flesh in rushes. It's unclear whether the figures are drowning or beating each other up for the sake of drama or as seriously as possible, making them-perfectly McLuhanesque-a cold medium, eager to interpret and overwrite according to one's conscience. Urban legend has it that this is such a less oppressive Rorschach test, in which one has to confess only to an excess of military-erotic associations. Writing about Flis' work for Vogue, Basia Czyzewska quotes Bella Hooks: “The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of men does not involve women. Men are forced to engage in acts of psychological self-harm and the killing of those parts of their own self that make up emotionality.” Flis' giants embody the trauma associated with the pressures of archetypal masculinity.