The unbridled power of graphic art

Tomasz Matczak’s artwork is today a rare example of evocative, emotional delights, revealed not only on the level of qualities represented by the works, but also in the author’s declarations defining the sources of his creative inspiration. We get the impression that in comparison with the speculated messages formulated by various trends in contemporary art, Tomasz Matczak’s works seem exceptionally sincere and spontaneous (which cannot be said about the complex and elaborate technology adopted by the author), literally and figuratively romantic. Their roots and the author’s creative motivations should be sought in the accomplishments of artists dating back to a century or even two ago.

The works are a reflection of moods – those that are present in the observed fragments of nature, as well as those that express the experiences of the artist himself. The graphics are the visual equivalent of impressions, they have – in a sense – the character of a subjective pictorial deformation of the experienced reality. They result from a reaction to the enchantment with a phenomenon, as a response to a sudden sensation, the need to deconstruct, and then to define a certain phenomenon.

Tomasz Matczak studies nature taking an analytical attitude towards it. He explores the landscape using the tools of artistic expression. The resulting prints are not representations functioning for their own sake, they are not merely ‘photographs’ of the setting. Specific pictorial motifs refer to certain phenomena and the symbolic meanings attributed to them. In a certain way the author translates the language of nature into the language of visual means of expression. Tomasz Matczak’s landscapes are constructed. They are created by layering different - to a large extent transformed - picture planes. They are not pure illustrations of nature but a tool for presenting its complexity, beauty and power. We get the impression that the works take on the character of almost pantheistic evocations.

In spite of numerous author’s interventions, especially those dematerializing elements of the presented world, the works are very suggestive, they provide the viewer with a holistic, immersive experience of almost polysensory character, encompassing not only looks, but also scents and sounds.

How to show the changeability inherent in nature in a static image? For this purpose, the artist uses, among other things, various movement formulas, suggesting momentum, transformation, disappearance or circulation. Depth is created not by the feeling of perspective, but by the vortex to which the atoms of light, air and colour are subjected. The complicated method of work results in the detachment of the created image from its original. The artist aims to render the essence of the phenomenon, and he does this expressively and precisely. Occasionally, in order to convey the essence of the experience, he includes linguistic neologisms in the titles, so as to bring us closer to a given phenomenon and its essential characteristics.

At the exhibition held by the Amcor Gallery the artist also presents older graphics. They feature pictorial motifs related to architecture, which used to be more common than it is today. It was already clear then that the author of these works did not care about the status of the source itself or the type of inspiration, but rather about constructing an equivalent of feelings by means of an image. These works are more structural. They release special tensions resulting from the proximity and interaction of more strongly defined planes and solids. They are not so impressionistically atomized, both in terms of their material aspect and their colour scheme. They are more subdued as far as colour is concerned, organized around a limited palette. The artist uses the play of planes to a greater extent. Both the older and the recent works, more spectacular in terms of form and the ways of shaping reality, contribute to the fact that, in a sense, all the actions undertaken by the artist lead these sophisticated compositions to the land of abstraction.

Tomasz Matczak’s art reconciles all the ways of constructing artistic expression. He combines what allows us – as in a drawing – to participate in the most direct, tactile way in the artist’s gesture, with what is mechanical and repetitive. The worlds of traditional craftsmanship and digitalized space meet here. It is not a gesture accidental in its nature, but an action aimed at the conscious use of the possibilities of both areas.

The artist has been in a constant search. Not only for subsequent visual inspirations, but also for new, original ideas related to the use of unconventional substrates and materials. He has been continuing and developing his research in order to expand the potential possibilities of planographic printing. In his creative practice, we can find stone, aluminium plates (or aluminium foil), zinc, iron and even polyester plates. Tomasz Matczak is obviously interested not only in the aspects of preparing the matrix but also in the process of making prints. For his prints, the artist uses natural, traditional matrices as well as laser and inkjet printers – in accordance with the previously assumed effect. In terms of technology, he uses unusual components, some of which he finds in his immediate environment. He looks for alternative solutions that not only simplify the process of making a work of art but also open up new, previously unknown possibilities and are another source of creative expression.

The use of new technical solutions, discoveries in the field of technology and materials used in printmaking result in a series of works endowed with great beauty. At first glance, Tomasz Matczak offers us a reliable, clearly recognizable and easy to interpret image of nature. On the other hand, however, we can see that its components have been atomized, mixed in different proportions, and the depicted world has been dematerialized.
Time-consuming, multi-stage artistic work brings complex compositions. It is their structure, the arrangement of individual layers that reflects the process of the creation of works and, on the other hand, the structure of the surrounding world and essence of its transformations. In the texts concerning Tomasz Matczak’s body of work, it has already been emphasized that the basic qualities determining the dynamics of the world depicted are the elements of nature portrayed in his works, shown both as the personification of power, a destructive factor, and as a symbol of rebirth or purification. They embody all oppositions present in the universe, the antinomy of birth and death, growth and decline, stagnation and development. Capturing them in the process of perception determines, on the one hand, the evocation of admiration for the order and beauty of nature, on the other, it can be the source of feelings of uncertainty and awe.

The world of the elements in Matczak’s spectacular works is shown in a network of various relationships. It is not a homogenous portrait of nature. In this attractive vision, particles of water mix with atoms of the air, the earth yields to the heat of fire. The artist creates an image of clash and struggle, leading to the synthesis of elements. The result is a vision of nature as a medium of matter and the energy released by it. The depth of space filled in this way remains either difficult to specify, undefined, or – as we suspect when looking at the whirl of life and destruction that engulfs us – infinite. The artistic effects that determine the quality of our reception are close to impressionist pointillism and the vibrations of matter it produces, and on the other hand, to op-art experiments that give the illusion of multidirectional movement and deceive the eye.
The artist pays great attention to the tonal values of his images, he harmonizes the colour palette, the zones of hues pass one into another, as if the vibrated components of the material world – regardless of their state of matter – were subject to diffusion. The driving force behind the transformations is the light, which saturates the space and organizes the movement of the elements.

The perspective used by Tomasz Matczak, the ways of framing fragments of nature and the means of artistic formation make the reality shown on the plane seem almost tangible. Nature is shown in close-up, it pushes against us and finally surrounds us. We enter it to experience it, to get to know it better. At the same time, we clearly feel that we are part of it.

Dariusz Leśnikowski

Transl. Elżbieta Rodzeń-Leśnikowska