Exodus
In Exodus series Peter Barelkowski presents his work on the always relevant topic of displacement and migration.
Barelkowski has long fixated on this issue - the never-ending story of human history. Consistent with his minimalist style, Barelkowski’s Exodus series outlines silhouettes, shadows, figures with their belongings moving in single file across an endless landscape.
A single line delineates the horizon. Below the horizon is one color above it, another. The symbol of the ladder often appears in Barelkowski’s work and in this series, it hovers above or below the horizon offering a path that seems to go unnoticed by the travellers.
With a subtle change of colours and a shift in the placement of the horizon, the mood changes - the landscape feels like another time, another place. This story, this exodus has no beginning and no end.
Minded Spaces
In his new series of paintings, Minded Spaces. Peter Barelkowski reveals a personal notion of space that is first created in the mind and then experienced through the body. Barelkowski argues that our own perception is subiective and it is in this personal space that one experiences both hopes and fears. Minded Spaces explores the subiective idea of a better world - a new space.
Through his paintings, Barelkowski hopes to achieve a sense of tranquility, however fleeting and subjective
Vestiges
You may be familiar with the powerful works of Peter Barelkowski. This abstract series is no different and he continues to speak volumes with visual simplicity. What appears as deceptively sparce canvases are filled with narratives about how time shapes our individual and collective memories.
The abstracts are constructed using a complex, multi-layered technique. Thick oil paint buries the past. Some parts of the surface are uncovered, while others are barely visible. Over time, do we excavate, bury, revisit or reimagine our past?
Family Album
The current collection that is to be presented as The Family Album is the combined result of that earlier historical work, the artist own therapeutic analysis and interpretation of his memories within his nuclear family.
In true Barelkowski fashion, a theme is reworked and revisited over several years. The Barelkowski symbols with which we are so familiar reappear. The ladder – a connector, the escape route, the symbol of hope? The chair usually a place for comfort and stability is disrupted. The childlike or naive manner in which the figures are drawn and the scratching of the canvas give the paintings a sense of whimsy which then instantaneously appear surreal when the depth of the subject matter is realized .
Come Play With Us
An Invitation To Our Horrors
Exhibition at The Propeller Gallery, Toronto, April 14 - 25, 2010
