Structures of Time – a presentation of artists represented by SOA Gallery
“Structures of Time” is a presentation of contemporary painting and sculpture in which diverse artistic languages meet around one of the most universal human experiences: time. The exhibition at SOA Gallery in Warsaw considers time as memory, transformation, rhythm, duration, disintegration and a moment preserved within a painting or sculptural material.
The exhibition features works by Sylwester Ambroziak, Jerzy Baranowski, Aleksander Baszyński, Wojciech Cieśniewski, Stanisław Czwartos, Wincenty Czwartos, Jerzy Fober, Andrzej Fogtt, Ryszard Grzyb, Tomasz Koclęga, Allen Mack, Sławomir Ratajski, Beata Stankiewicz, Ryszard Woźniak, Tomasz Zawadzki, Marek Zyga and Agnieszka Żak.
The selected works represent contrasting formal strategies, ranging from figuration and photorealism to matter painting, symbolism, expression, geometric abstraction and the aesthetics of digital error. This diversity does not disperse the exhibition’s meaning. Instead, it reveals the many visual forms through which contemporary artists examine the experience of time.
Time recorded through painting, memory and digital disruption
Aleksander Baszyński and Allen Mack approach time through strategies of fragmentation and image destabilisation. In Baszyński’s paintings, the surface resembles a palimpsest that has been repeatedly written upon, erased and transformed. Traces of previous states remain visible, although they no longer form a single, linear narrative.
In “Year”, time becomes a process in which successive layers of experience overlap. A similar tension can be found in “The Politics of Sound” and “Untitled”, where the memory of the image emerges through erasures, fractures and visual ambiguity.
Allen Mack employs the language of glitches, errors and digital interference. His paintings “Jump” and “Solaris” suggest a rupture in linear continuity. The image behaves like a system suspended between successive states, while time follows the logic of interruption, impulse and momentary displacement.
History as a sign, a structure and a contemporary reinterpretation
Stanisław and Wincenty Czwartos refer directly to history and traditional iconographic codes, although each artist approaches them from a different perspective.
In “Battle Painting”, Wincenty Czwartos reinterprets the motif of conflict without relying on literal representation or heroic pathos. The dynamics of confrontation are translated into a geometric arrangement of forces, directions and tensions. History becomes a visual equation in which emotion gives way to structure.
Stanisław Czwartos confronts contemporary figuration with symbols derived from cultural, religious and collective memory. In “Viper Tongue”, a historical sign is removed from its original setting and placed within a new context. Although it loses its former certainty, it retains the ability to shape meaning and provoke interpretation.
Suspended time and the metaphysics of everyday life
A different experience of time can be found in the paintings of Beata Stankiewicz. Her photorealistic interiors are marked by silence, stillness and a subtle metaphysics of everyday life. Time does not move forward dramatically. It stretches across the light falling on a wall, the emptiness of a room and the immobility of ordinary objects.
“Room with Two Daybeds” presents an apparently ordinary interior from which the human figure is absent. The room preserves traces of life while remaining suspended outside a clearly defined moment. The painting may be read as a study of solitude, the memory of a place and quiet anticipation.
Archetype, transformation and the symbolic order of time
Agnieszka Żak explores the symbolic and archetypal dimensions of time in her “Major Arcana” series, inspired by the iconography of tarot. The artist draws upon a timeless system of figures and signs through which personal experience becomes connected to universal narratives of choice, transformation, risk and spiritual development.
Żak’s vibrant compositions are formed from flowing, ornamental structures reminiscent of patterned fabrics. They move between figuration and abstraction, combining decorative richness with precise details and gilded elements that recall the tradition of Symbolist painting.
In “World”, time becomes an experience of completion and the closing of a cycle. “Empress” refers to creativity, fertility and growth, while “The High Priestess” evokes intuition, mystery and inner knowledge. “The Emperor” represents order, stability and control.
In Żak’s work, time becomes a threshold: a space suspended between what has already been experienced and what is only beginning to emerge.
Cosmic infinity and the accelerated rhythm of contemporary life
Ryszard Grzyb provides a counterpoint to Agnieszka Żak’s symbolic narrative. He abandons the individual scale of human experience in favour of a cosmic perspective. “I Walk Toward You, Vastness” evokes infinity and presents time as a powerful, almost mythical process through which the world continuously comes into being.
Ryszard Woźniak engages with this cosmic scale through irony and cultural subversion. His paintings combine historical and symbolic references with observations of everyday reality. Time is fast, fragmented and saturated with excess information.
“Shopping and Things to Do II 1/5” records the rhythm of daily obligations. “Icarus (Dragonfly)” transforms an archetypal theme through an unexpected contemporary interpretation, while “Multiple Painting (Idiot Icon) 1/9” critically examines the reproduction of cultural images.
The painted gesture as a physical record of a moment
Andrzej Fogtt seeks to preserve an ephemeral impression and the energy of a landscape. “Brda” and “Elements” are not merely representations of nature. They are records of perception, movement and the artist’s emotional response to the observed world.
Wojciech Cieśniewski moves even further towards the physical materiality of painting. In “Festyn”, dense texture and pronounced impasto cause the subject to partially give way to the substance of paint itself. Time is preserved within the surface as a physical record of gesture, pressure and creative energy.
Rhythm, geometry and time as pictorial structure
Tomasz Zawadzki occupies a distinctive position within the field of abstraction. His painting emerges from a tension between emotional gesture and intellectual discipline. Monumental fields of colour create an almost tactile experience, while geometric construction introduces order and precision.
In “Direct measurement, 104/12” and “Direct measurement, 104/5”, the painting becomes a space in which organic vitality is balanced against precise construction. Time takes the form of measurement, ordering and the continuous control of visual energy.
Jerzy Baranowski adopts a related but more ascetic strategy. Repeated verticals, horizontals and dense networks of lines create pulsating surfaces that react to light and to the viewer’s changing position. Repetition becomes a measure of time, while geometry creates a space for concentration and contemplation.
Expression, myth and the energy of an event
Sławomir Ratajski’s painting forms an expressive counterpoint to the disciplined structures of abstraction. The artist draws on mythological and biblical themes, transforming them into dynamic confrontations of colour, scale, form and painterly gesture.
In “David and Goliath”, the timeless theme of conflict is expressed through contrasts of scale and the intensity of the painted surface. “Danae in front of the mirror” combines a mythological narrative with a contemporary use of colour and expressive form.
Here, time is neither a quiet structure nor a field of contemplation. It becomes the energy of an event: an intense act taking place directly upon the surface of the canvas.
Sculpture as an experience of duration and material weight
The inclusion of sculpture introduces a bodily and spatial dimension to the exhibition. Time is no longer only a subject. It is embedded within the weight of the material, the traces of modelling and the processes of casting, firing and carving.
Sylwester Ambroziak confronts the tradition of figurative sculpture with a raw contemporary language. His distorted and monumentalised figures combine vulnerability with a primal physical presence. “Girl”, “Boy” and “Pieta” from the “Innocence” series examine fragility, human relationships and loss.
In “The Whipping”, Jerzy Fober extracts a fragment of the human body from a massive block of wood. The material is not merely a neutral carrier of form. It becomes a witness to effort, suffering and the prolonged act of carving.
In “Spes Aeterna”, Tomasz Koclęga depicts a human being suspended between the weight of physical matter and a metaphysical aspiration. The dramatically modelled figure contrasts with a perfectly smooth golden sphere, representing hope, perfection and a goal that remains beyond immediate reach.
Marek Zyga treats the human figure as an archive of memory. Surfaces covered with letters and signs suggest that identity develops over time under the influence of words, relationships and narratives. “Longing” refers to absence and emotional distance, while “I am” explores presence, subjectivity and the human need to confirm one’s own existence.
Contemporary art available at SOA Gallery
“Structures of Time” presents time as a multidimensional phenomenon: present in memory, domestic silence, digital error, archetypal symbolism, cosmic infinity, geometric rhythm and the physical weight of sculptural material.
The variety of artistic approaches offers both an opportunity for reflection and a carefully considered selection of works for private or corporate collections. The paintings and sculptures presented by SOA Gallery can become distinctive elements of a contemporary interior, while remaining autonomous works whose meaning continues to develop over time.
Visitors are invited to experience the exhibition at SOA Gallery in Warsaw and to contact the gallery regarding the availability of individual paintings and sculptures. Each work may be discussed in relation to its provenance, technique, dimensions, display requirements and its potential role within a developing contemporary art collection.
