Rafał Bujnowski belongs to the young generation of Polish artists who became internationally known after the democratic change in Poland. He is one of the most radical contemporary artists, with works that are an outstanding composite of two seemingly distant artistic methods, painting and conceptual art. His artistic practice, including paintings, videos, objects, and actions, is linked to the social agency of the artist and of the works of art, as well as the paradigms present in the art itself. Bujnowski’s work has been presented in many international solo and group exhibitions, at, for example, the Ludwig Museum, Budapest; the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen; the Centre for Art and Media (ZKM), Karlsruhe; Kunsthalle, Vienna; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; Sainsbury Centre of Visual Arts, Norwich; Foxy Productions, New York; Düsseldorfer Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen; Zachęta, the National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; the Polish Institute, Paris; Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow; MAXXI, National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; and Art in General, New York.

From the beginning of his career, Bujnowski’s practice has included painting, video, sculpture, drawing and photography. He defines his interests in everyday life, without being fixed to any specific genres; instead, his works subtly question conditions, social space, and structures in contemporary visual art. According to the artist, painting is a cosmos that constantly explodes or implodes, and this changeability takes on metaphysical dimensions. The painting Bambus is an example of a reduced style, where the artist creates black and white structures that are reminiscent of old photographs or illustrations from botanical books. Bambus shows bamboo sticks sketched with a few precise brushstrokes. It has the air of a decorative wall panel, but upon closer inspection, the fabric from which the paintings are made blurs into abstract swirls of colour, completely removed from any decorative understanding of the work.