The Tichauer Art Gallery in Tychy has launched the exhibition ‘Siudmak. Cosmogonies’. The show consists of around ninety works by Wojciech Siudmak – painter and sculptor of the fantasy realism trend. His admirers include prominent filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, George Lucas, Jean-Jacques Annaud, and Denis Villeneuve, as well as many other artists and intellectuals.

Wojciech Siudmak’s work has been described as fantastic realism or surrealism. Its expressive tone has inspired the world of science fiction, science fiction literature, film, and mass culture in general. The artist works virtuosically with the three-dimensional illusion of space, light, and shadow. He is the author of opera and theatre productions and collaborates on cultural events all over the world. For the Polish viewer, he is recognisable from the pages of the monthly magazine Nowa Fantastyka, which reproduced his works in its pages for many years.

In the work of Wojciech Siudmak, we find echoes of Hieronymus Bosch, Michelangelo, Tiepolo, Bernini, Arcimboldo. The artist’s fascination with nineteenth-century art, such as Blake, Ingres, Bocklin and the Surrealists, can also be felt in his paintings. The artist does not identify his own work with any trend or group. Siudmak is very independent and values freedom above all else. He follows the mathematical rules of cosmic harmony, the golden ratio, and the views of great thinkers, often referring to the heritage of Antiquity.

Since 2004, literary enthusiasts have been able to enjoy the drawings and covers of publications inspired by his paintings dedicated to authors such as: Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, and Cervantes. The artist has also created a series of paintings, sculptures and drawings devoted to the Nocturnes of Fryderyk Chopin. Constantly active, he takes up new themes and challenges in fine arts.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński