Tokarski, Wawrzyniec Illegal, 2003
Acrylic on fabric unframed , 165 x 135 cm © Wawrzyniec Tokarski Courtesy: The Artist Photo: Archive Viehof Collection

About the work

Tokarski's works elude simple interpretation. Here, for viewers from our everyday lives, familiar or seemingly familiar image fragments overlap fragments of images such as advertising motifs, logos, signs, or symbols overlap with conspicuously placed text elements that trigger involuntary associations in the viewer. By mixing fragments of different content, the combination of which often has a bitingly sarcastic undertone, the artist nevertheless manages to attract the attention of viewers overstimulated by the overcrowded media world and to set off in search of the meaning of the image, which must inevitably always be multi-layered. Tokarski is a master of irony and absurdity, translating them into painting and strikingly denouncing grievances in society, politics, and the environment. His works resemble leaflets put up on the wall, whose message is hard to resist.

About the artist

born 1968 in Gdansk - Poland
lives and works in Berlin
 
Wawrzyniec Tokarski studied fine arts at the Academy Gdańsk, the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with Joseph Kosuth and K.R.H. Sonderborg and finally at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe with Helmut Dorner. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 2000 and has been represented in numerous solo and group exhibitions.
 
Works by the painter, which refer to contemporary media sources, are in the Burger Collection (Berlin), the Deutsche Bank Collection (Frankfurt) and the Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany.