Jacek Rudnicki

by Cosimo Stifani, Art Critic

Jacek Rudnicki was born in Warsaw, Poland in.1969. From 1994 - 1998 he went to Ontario College of Art and Design, in Toronto, Canada. Upon graduation he received his Diploma in Interdisciplinary Studies.

The artwork produced by this artist reflects his philosophy, his dialectical discourse between the profane and the divine, the weird and the familiar, the supernatural and the mundane. Titles, according to this artist, are generally misleading; for the viewer by reading the painting brings into play his/her experiences and his/her mental images. It appears that Jacek’s intent is to elicit an interpretation from the viewer; and if an interpretation is offered, then the work is successful for it has fulfilled its purpose, namely: in bringing the viewer to a pause. It is obvious that in this state of affairs no single interpretation is complete. The painting can be reconstructed according to the mental images produced by the emotions that create them.

And so textural qualities and the resolution of the painting are two fundamental characteristics that dominate this artist’s work. The creation of the painting then really depends on the emotions transferred to the canvas in the form of materialized mental images. “It is my goal to charge my paintings with emotions,” affirms Jacek with an assured tone, “to breathe life into them, so that the viewer can recognize that which defies words.” Art, in Jacek’s view, has to instill in the viewer a sense of awe, of bewilderment in realizing that a painting can attune one’s innermost emotions to the lyrical notes of one’s innermost feelings.