VOLTA VISITS | LESZEK SKURSKI | Fulda, Germany
Join us on VOLTA Visits, a recurring series where we spend studio time with VOLTA exhibiting artists and learn more about their background, process, and projects.
Located in the countryside, surrounded by fields and the Rhön Mountains, Leszek Skurski’s studio combines a production space and gallery in a simple, modern wooden building. Bright daylight falls through the roof’s skylight, illuminating the paintings of Leszek and his wife, Joanna Skurska.
The artist Leszek Skurski in his gallery outside of Fulda.
Leszek is renowned for his white paintings. Unique and instantly recognizable, they are dominated by all shades, from warm beige to cold grey to blueish white hues. His paintings end where most others’ start: White. On these white landscapes, small black and grey figures appear, always set in relation to each other, as a couple, a group, never by themselves. Exposed on the wide landscape, they tell a story through their stillness.
Leszek Skurski, Arena, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 110 x 180 cm.
In his paintings, Leszek challenges the limits of the figurative and abstract, exploring the moment when the color on the canvas turns into the shape of a body. Up close, the black and grey surfaces dissolve into brushstrokes, but by stepping away from the canvas, these shapes become characters in a larger narrative.
Leszek begins his paintings by covering the white canvas with black or grey acrylic or oil paint. He then applies layers of white with a palette knife or brush. Borrowing his imagery from photographs or drawing from memory, the dark figures emerge through the white paint creating depth and perspective.
Leszek Skurski’s home studio
In his white paintings, Leszek challenges the limits of the figurative and abstract.
Born 1973 in Gdansk, Poland, Leszek graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and was awarded the Polish State Prize for Painting at the age of 22. Leszek moved to Germany in 1997 and works from his home studio outside of Fulda, as well as in Felanitx on the Spanish island of Majorca. It is there that Leszek challenges the self-imposed limits of his white paintings, experiments with concrete on canvas, and turns the bright white into darker shades.
Nuanced in his subject matter, Leszek often references current events in his paintings, from asparagus farmers to a portrait series of American and Taliban soldiers, while at the same time capturing 35 Vermeer paintings, wondering how many brushstrokes it takes to recognize the Girl with the Pearl Earring.
Leszek Skurski is presented by Galerie Barbara von Stechow in Frankfurt and shows new paintings at both, VOLTA New York and Basel in 2022.
Bright daylight falls through the roof’s skylight, illuminating the paintings of Leszek Skurski and his wife Joanna Skurska.
Skurski’s Studio in Fulda
LESZEK SKURSKI
Gdansk, Poland (b. 1973)
Lives and works in Fulda, Germany
Education
1992-1997 Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk
1995 Polish State Prize for Painting
Recent Exhibitions (selection)
2021 Galerie Crone, Vienna
2021 Gallery Barbara von Stechow, Majorca
2021 Red Corridor Gallery, Fulda
2020 Gallery Barbara von Stechow, Frankfurt
2020 Red Corridor Gallery, Fulda
2020 Theo Art, Seoul, South Korea
2019 Ernst-Ludvig-Kirchner Verein, Fehmarn
2019 Heimat Galerie, Saint Remy
2019 Galerie Von & Von, Nürnberg