Václav Rodek | Sítě snů / Nets of Dreams

Václav Rodek | Sítě snů / Nets of Dreams

curator: Sławomir Kuszczak

opening: 3.02.2023, 18:00

Exhibition: 3–17.02.2023

Monday–Friday 9:00–19:00

Galeria Szewska 16

ul. Szewska 16, Poznań

An invitation to a joint journey

The analysis of Vaclaw Rodek’s oeuvre based on reflection on the real world and the achievements of visual culture in reference to the principles of aesthetics will most likely lead us to the conclusion that the artist’s works are expressive and are a conglomeration of abstraction and figuration. Abstraction is often dominant. Moreover, the works of the Czech painter can be suspected of a certain nervousness, haste and understatement accompanying quite well-thought-out compositions. The works can be included in the area of modernist experience. However, being based on a typical psycho-physical experience of the world and the search for analogies in our culture, such obvious opinions are inappropriate in this case.

This error stems from the fact that Vacław Rodek’s creative activity is inspired by dreams. If we begin to compare his paintings with the reality of dreams, which almost all of us know, the perception of the works will surprisingly change and the analysed paintings will become somewhat realistic. What is abstract, unsaid and perhaps even aesthetically superficial will transform into very refined and real representations. We will receive an invitation to a joint painting journey in a world that we experience but do not fully recognise. It is a bit as if someone offered us to enter a science-fiction film and have an adventure together. The fact that the Czech painter creates such an opportunity testifies to his talent, sensitivity, but also maturity and great intellectual potential.

The author can describe, report and analyse his works perfectly. Thus, he proves that nothing we see and feel when confronted with his achievements has been created by chance and that everything is the result of a consistently and consciously implemented strategy. However, these intellectual efforts would have no meaning if his paintings did not ‘work’, but they do. All that is needed is ignition, which will direct the process of learning and understanding this artistic activity. The audience needs to be informed that the visualisations viewed are not reflections on the real world. We need to let our body and consciousness know that we are experiencing a different reality.

When confronting the audience with his paintings (some of which are huge), the painter invites us inside, not only inside his paintings but also inside ourselves and our world of dreams.

However, perhaps the most interesting and accurate questions are is how and by what means the artist shows us the world that interests him, a world that neither we nor science have fully understood. Vaclav Rodek does not tell us his dreams or tell literary stories, but he consistently relies on visual language. He visually stretches intellectual nets in front of us, which become three-dimensional screens for our experiences. We can find ourselves in these nets and move in them. Looking at the paintings of the Czech artist, we have a chance to enter the individual world of dream experiences and reflections created in this real, including those that we experience after waking up and when we are awake. We can set on a journey.

Vaclaw Rodek’s oeuvre includes convincing and effective paintings.