About the Artist
Tomek Krupiński – a review
Robert Florczak
There is a place in Poland where it is not only the wild Polish bison that lie in pastures green but also Orthodox believers, Catholics and followers of Islam. Offspring of the Tatar peoples, Byelorussians, Lithuanians and Poles chant their devotion to God, tradition and the beauty of the surrounding landscape. It is no coincidence that this area is the birthplace of so many magnificent artists. From here, they set out to the art academies in Gdańsk or Warsaw and to the exhibition salons of Venice and Kasel.
Tomek Krupiński is one such nomad of modern art. His monumental paintings objects, which he showed as part of his graduation diploma in painting at the Gdańsk Academy of Fine Arts foreshadowed the insubordinate nature of this particular artist. He is a painter, sculptor, designer of furniture and interior designer. I remember well the shoes he has made which have astounded many a man. For him, there is no difference between so called “high” and “applied arts”. Anything he touches metamorphoses into art – individual and unique, and recognisable all at once. He is a workaholic who loves partying and imbibing, he loves to indulge in the beauty which surrounds him while also leaving a trace of that beauty behind him. Each of his exhibitions is a sublime feast of painting, objects and furniture and – if the gallery space permits – monumental sculpture. His colossal “Canoes”, exhibited in the yard of the Ujazdowski Castle, the most exclusive exhibition space in Warsaw, now adorn the Northern Park in Sopot with their steel grace. It seems that he finds no difference between working in metal, stone, resin or wood. There is no difference for him if he works on a small form or on a large-sized monument, painting, shop interior, a club or a flat. He moves with unrestrained determination and fine precision from the design stage to perfectly worked detail, whether preparing shoes for Cyber-Frankenstein, the shuttles and cocoons of his beautiful lamps of organic shapes, or loudspeakers caged in cast iron for connoisseurs. Tomek Krupiński’s art is uniquely suspended between monumentality and sensuous intimacy, between brutality and elegance. It is the marriage of the Byzantine relish of the East and the sublime technology of the West.
Biographical Note
Born 18.04.1968 in Białystok.
He graduated from The Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty of Painting. Diploma (a space arrangement) at Kiejstut Bereźnicki’s atelier in 1994.
He lives and works in Gdańsk, Poland.
-
2018 - to date
Permanent Art Exhibition, Royal Riffle Factory, Gdańsk
2016
Sound - Image, Mazolewski - Krupinski, The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre
2014
Sound - Vision, Mazolewski - Krupiński, Castle Topacz Wrocław
2010
Baltic Cliff, Collection Privee Cannes, France
2001 - to date
Canoes, Park Północny (Northern Park), Sopot
2000
Prototypes, Opera Gallery, CSW Ujazdowski Castle, Warszawa
1998
Reliquiaries, „Sfinks” Art Pavilion, Sopot
1994
Diploma work, Small Armoury, Gdańsk
-
2016
25th Anniversary of Sfinks Foundation, Sopot
2013
Kornacki - Krupiński, Royal Riffle Factory, Gdańsk
2011
20th Anniversary of Sfinks Foundation, Sopot
2009
PiTiPa Gallery, Gdańsk
2003 - 2009
Exhibition of object of use, Amsterdam, Holland
2001
Sopot in Berlin, Polish Institute, Berlin, Germany
2000
Artefact Gallery, Gdańsk
1997
Young Artists from Gdańsk, Parliament Building, Schleswig Holstein, Germany
1996
Young Artists from Gdańsk, Parliament Building, Bremen, Germany
1995
Tabula Rasa II, St. John’s Church, Gdańsk
1995
Tabula Rasa I, Parliament Building, Schleswig Holstein, Germany
1994
Red Again, „Sfinks” Art Pavilion, Sopot
1991
Poles in the USA, Copernicus Centre, Chicago, USA
-
2017 - to date
Cooperation with Caprini-Pellerin Architects, Cannes, France
1995 - to date
Interior desings for several dozen of private houses, apartments, offices, clubs and restaurants
2003 - 2004
Co-author of the project for the building of the House on Water in Amsterdam, Holland
2006 - 2018
Co-operation with the Collection Privée Gallery, Cannes, France
1991 - to date
Sopot: exhibitions, stage-designs, performances, street and theatrical actions
1991 - to date
Participation in artistic events of The Sfinks Foundation