Jakub Julian Ziółkowski is a painter, musician and sculptor, creator of drawings, monotypes and objects. His works were recently shown at the extensive individual exhibition “You Are Mine” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (2023). He has also taken part in some of the most important group shows of his generation, including “As You Can See: Polish Art Today”, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2014), “The Encyclopedic Palace”, 55th Venice Biennale (2013), and “The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus”, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009).

A monotype is one of a kind, but there is a duality inherent in its form. It is as if the draughtsman is working on both sides of the sheet at the same time. Drawing with pencil on one side of the paper, he creates an inverted image in ink on the other side. The monotype comes from a series entitled “Elements”. The English word “elements” refers to chemical elements or elemental forces, something primary and indivisible. It also means fragments and components—the result of breaking something down into parts. The point or moment where the realities of duality and non-duality intersect is the substance of this work. A fascination with unity and symmetry, a longing for completeness, and at the same time breaking the world down into pairs and opposites, is what connects us as people. Deep experiences of insight—whether achieved through psychoactive substances, meditative processes, or the practices of mystics—delve into the primary structures of human imagination. Networks of neurons and all the infinitely complex mechanisms of the human body generate common images. And these images are like the undercoat of visibility, the visual hum of our individual and collective brains.

Magdalena Kownacka