MARTIN KOZLOWSKI
PLERK WOXI II IXOW KRELP
Exhibition: September 22 - October 13, 2018Opening: Friday September 21, 6-10 pm
During Berlin Art Week: Wed. 26.09. - Sun. 30.09., 12-6 pm
Art Berlin Gallery Friday 28.09., 12-9 pm
Address: Potsdamer Straße 118, 10785 Berlin, (in the backyard)
To work in a transparent way means allowing the public to witness the decisions being taken. It means to be open and honest, with nowhere to hide. The word transparency originates from Medieval Latin and is directly translated as “to let in the light”. ...
In Kozlowski’s PLERK WOXI II IXOW KRELP the light shines straight through the plexi on which he lets his gestures and marks land. He works with the material property of the plexi to build up an image in layers of colour and colours only. There is no canvas, no underlying law. The light shines through, and makes the opaque parts into roads of information. They twist and curl, slither like snakes all the way out into the world, to be seen and talked about. The way he paints is rough but also calculated and with purpose. Years of studies and training just to be able to forsake the usual references, brings the result to a point where the physical entity takes me away from looking at a painting and instead I see an idea of independence, of total freedom. I float.
In the shyness and vulnerability of the glasslike works I find strength and bravery, and an implicit stance Towards the history of gestural painting.
It reflects back to PLERK WOXI II IXOW KRELP. It’s an impression packed with attitude meeting us, but it allows us to see it from another side, a side we rarely see in painting. Because this time, we walk around and around to find a new hole to peep through, to catch glimpses of layers that perhaps were never ment for our eyes. Or did Kozlowski paint two paintings in one?
It brings me to the last and perhaps most controversial side of this particular show - radical transparency, an approach to relating to others. It’s practitioners stand naked infront of their partners and friends, without sugarcoating they present themselves like they truly are. For better or for worse, this takes some serious balls.
I see straight through you. I read you like an open book, and the further I get in the story, the more complex you grow and the more questions I want to ask. If I follow the snakes, I might find the answers.
Text: Nicolina Eklund
Martin Kozlowski (*1984 Stockholm, Sweden), Studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths University of London (BFA) and at Städelschule in Frankfurt (Meisterschuler from Amy Sillmans class 2016).