Assistant Professor Grzegorz Niemyjski, Ph. D.
Born in 1970 in Legnica, he completed Państwowe Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych (State Secondary School of Fine Arts) in Wrocław in 1992. In 1994, he started his studies at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. He obtained his degree in sculpture in 1999. Since 2006/2007 he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. Since September 2020 he has been the dean of the Faculty of Sculpture and Art Mediation there. He has held 45 individual art exhibitions and artistic actions, he has also participated in about 100 group exhibitions.
The artist creates sculptures in wood, stone and pottery, he also pursues drawing and situational social actions. He undertakes themes connected with the analysis of the contemporary times as post-religious ones and with the atrophy of spiritual needs. In his works, he often explores motives well known from art history, characteristic for religious art. However, he does not present a confessional attitude of piety, but focuses on seeking individual forms. His creative stance has been recently closely linked to matter: through it, he relates to the affirmation of daily life and the variety present in the world, as well as to conscious participation in it.
ALL OUR DAILY MATTERS
The title for the exhibition is drawn from a fragment of one of the most popular traditional Old Polish religious songs by Franciszek Karpiński, entitled Evening Hymn, which the poet published in his collection Pieśni nabożne (Pious Hymns) in 1792. In its lyrics, all the daily life things – moments – matters – are meant for God’s glory.
The exhibition consists of selected large wooden artworks created within the last dozen or so years, as well as ceramic sculptures. The spatial artifacts are complemented with drawings – among others, a series drawing on the form of the Mandylion icon. The exhibition is inspired by an attempt of entering into a dialogue with the need to refer human daily life to the metaphysical sphere, which seems to be vanishing in the modern world. I strive to achieve this by conveying the message of the Evening Song
Grzegorz Niemyjski
Evening Song
Let all our daily matters
Be mercifully accepted by You, Righteous God,
And when we fall asleep
May even our sleep praise You.
Day and night Your eyes are turned
Towards the place
When human incapacity
Awaits Your salvation.
Oh, Holy Mother of God
Intercede for us with God in heaven
Plead for us and watch over us
Together with holy angels.
Franciszek Karpiński, 1792.
Our lives rarely abound in spectacular events. It might seem that, most of the time, nothing really happens. Our existence is spent in the daily rhythm of work and sleep. Among various strategies adopted with respect to this phenomenon, there is an attitude present in multiple religions and worldviews: the appreciation of the daily life as the space in which the most crucial things take place.
Grzegorz Niemyjski’s art seeks the language expressing the reality which is supra-verbal, only sensed, though present nonetheless. By breaking the existing iconographic conventions, the artist broadens the scope of their messages. Owing to his suggestive expression, he returns to the authentic experience. He reminds of matters inseparably linked to human existence: deep joy, sorrow and suffering, which are present both in sudden events and in minor gestures – in all our daily matters.
kuratorka Małgorzata Malinowska-Klimek, curator