Floral Compositions

This is a very simple exhibition. You’ll find in it a series of paintings depicting flowers.

The flower motif has appeared in Krzysztof’s work before. We showed the first one in the gallery window during the pandemic, in 2020. We were meant to do the exhibition then, but people began falling ill, so we settled for the window. The flowers on a pastel background were placed in two vases and were leaning in toward each other, like people embracing.

Krzysztof painted them in response to the news that his acquaintance had been beaten up at Szczepański Square in Krakow. Another picture of flowers, painted in 2022, is called Colors of the Eyes. It depicted fanned inflorescences, their shape reminiscent of irises. What color are his eyes? What eye color should they be if he is to be loved? In his new series, the artist joins two meanings of flowers. The first pertains to painting, color, to those simple things we write about in every other text at almost every painting exhibition.

The second reference, the more important one, is to the LGBT community. Flowers are like people, they pose, search for their own space, and mark out boundaries. Hard to say if flowers smile, because they have no faces, only delicate bodies. They stand in a certain order, but this is no decorative parade; it is more like a line-up or an arrangement on an eye exam board, where everyone who doesn’t wear glasses will even make out the tiniest leaf, so it’s better they stick together.

Krzysztof Grzybacz studied painting in Krakow, he makes paintings and drawings.