Lessons of Darkness

Lessons of Darkness is a solo exhibition by Warsaw-based painter Maciej Nowacki. In recent years, the center of the artist's creative interest has been the male body. Nowacki studies and reinterprets historical representations, and explores the ways in which male identity is constructed in Western iconography and cultural narratives. So far, the bodies in the artist's paintings have assumed poses that emphasize exaggerated musculature, demonstrating strength, prowess and greatness. The figures in the latest paintings being premiered at the Mesta Trinec Gallery are captured in moments of rest, sleep and reverie, but also hurt, suffering and even dying, thus finding themselves in transitional states. 
 In addition, the exhibition will feature new fragrance objects, made from fragments of a torso cast in concrete and copper, from which a heavy aroma escapes. The exhibition's title is taken from the French "Leçons de Ténèbres" a Baroque musical genre derived from polyphonic funeral songs and present during funeral rituals. In the exhibition, mourning and farewell, both personally and culturally, are opportunities for new beginnings. Nowacki seeks paths away from the dominant patterns of masculinity, producing a kind of new mythology and spirituality based on the recognition and rejection of problematic, patriarchal patterns. 
 Maciej Nowacki (1991, Poznań) - Author of paintings, objects and installations. His main medium is painting. In his works he draws on historical sources, reinterpreting conventional ways of depicting male bodies from a queer perspective. He also uses mythological and alchemical motifs, building stories about the transformation of bodies, identity and psyche. He is a graduate of Painting and New Media at the Academy of Art in Szczecin. He has shown his works at BWA Wroclaw, MAMOTH Contemporary in London, Heart of Man Gallery in Warsaw, BWA Tarnow, Stefan Gierowski Foundation in Warsaw, Svetova 1 Gallery in Prague, among others. He participated in artist residencies at Studio PRAM in Prague and Eva Kahan Foundation, San Sano, Italy.