Grzegorz Kumorek – The Barn, the House, the Forest
29 November 2024 – 12 January 2025
BWA Tarnów / Strzelecki Palace, 1 Słowackiego St.
The titular Barn, House, and Forest are elements of the rural landscape in Olszowa, where the artist lives. Once inhabited by his grandparents, the place now belongs to Grzegorz Kumorek. The land, situated on a hill, is surrounded by freely sprawling nature, which becomes an essential protagonist of both the exhibition and the artist’s work.
Grzegorz engages with this place in a dialogical dance, consistently discovering, shifting, combining, and building. As he recalls, his first childhood games revolved around constructing structures from sticks found around the farm. Branches and sticks have remained one of the primary materials in his work. This process, deeply rooted in the past, is marked by humility and respect for the medium. Grzegorz describes it as “rural”—because in the countryside nothing goes to waste; everything has value and is used according to what is at hand.
Just as the nearby nature teems and churns, so Grzegorz combs through and rearranges the found fragments until they eventually form the right composition. In this whirl, the stick becomes everything—a tool, a material, a magic wand, a bone, the sky, a boundary. Creating these small worlds does not stem from a need for control but from a fascination with the process itself, from surrendering to intuition, since the final result always remains uncertain. Digging becomes a gateway into his art. He digs into the earth, into objects left by his grandmother, searching with curiosity and persistence, but also digging in a ritual way—to bid farewell to the past, to pay it respect, to close a chapter.
The space defined by the barn, the house, and the forest becomes a meeting point of life and death, and his works affirm and accept the processes that take place there. For the artist, it is a personal journey—a struggle with matter, memories, expectations. It is both a literal and symbolic building of his own place, making use of what is there, giving it new meaning through visual form.
The exhibition recreates the titular layout of the Olszowa homestead landscape, assigning the works to specific elements of it, which often lie on the boundaries between these spaces.
curator: Jagoda Dobecka
graphic design: Agnieszka Gogola
texts for the exhibition: Jagoda Dobecka, Urszula Honek
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated Polish-English catalogue featuring texts by Jagoda Dobecka and Urszula Honek. The publication is free of charge and available at BWA in Tarnów.
Urszula Honek text in Vogue PL
29 November 2024 – 12 January 2025
BWA Tarnów / Strzelecki Palace, 1 Słowackiego St.
The titular Barn, House, and Forest are elements of the rural landscape in Olszowa, where the artist lives. Once inhabited by his grandparents, the place now belongs to Grzegorz Kumorek. The land, situated on a hill, is surrounded by freely sprawling nature, which becomes an essential protagonist of both the exhibition and the artist’s work.
Grzegorz engages with this place in a dialogical dance, consistently discovering, shifting, combining, and building. As he recalls, his first childhood games revolved around constructing structures from sticks found around the farm. Branches and sticks have remained one of the primary materials in his work. This process, deeply rooted in the past, is marked by humility and respect for the medium. Grzegorz describes it as “rural”—because in the countryside nothing goes to waste; everything has value and is used according to what is at hand.
Just as the nearby nature teems and churns, so Grzegorz combs through and rearranges the found fragments until they eventually form the right composition. In this whirl, the stick becomes everything—a tool, a material, a magic wand, a bone, the sky, a boundary. Creating these small worlds does not stem from a need for control but from a fascination with the process itself, from surrendering to intuition, since the final result always remains uncertain. Digging becomes a gateway into his art. He digs into the earth, into objects left by his grandmother, searching with curiosity and persistence, but also digging in a ritual way—to bid farewell to the past, to pay it respect, to close a chapter.
The space defined by the barn, the house, and the forest becomes a meeting point of life and death, and his works affirm and accept the processes that take place there. For the artist, it is a personal journey—a struggle with matter, memories, expectations. It is both a literal and symbolic building of his own place, making use of what is there, giving it new meaning through visual form.
The exhibition recreates the titular layout of the Olszowa homestead landscape, assigning the works to specific elements of it, which often lie on the boundaries between these spaces.
curator: Jagoda Dobecka
graphic design: Agnieszka Gogola
texts for the exhibition: Jagoda Dobecka, Urszula Honek
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated Polish-English catalogue featuring texts by Jagoda Dobecka and Urszula Honek. The publication is free of charge and available at BWA in Tarnów.
Urszula Honek text in Vogue PL
Small Compromises, group exhibition
June 8 – August 31, 2025
Galeria ASP, Basztowa 18, Kraków
The exhibition Small Compromises explores the issue of artistic legitimization, examining both academic career paths and the broader mechanisms of recognition within the art field. Being a “professional artist” today is not just a matter of proficiency or meeting formal criteria, but also of the ability to function within institutions, social networks, and systems of grants and exhibitions.
Recognition is tied to a narrative of success in which failures remain invisible, and artistic work is evaluated in terms of productivity, visibility, and administrative requirements. Artists operating within academia face the need to publish, secure funding, and shape their activities in line with institutional expectations. This raises the question: does recognition truly support creativity, or does it rather impose strategies of self-promotion?
An artistic career requires not only symbolic capital but also tangible resources: finances, networks, and the ability to navigate the complex structures of the art world. Although academies formally promise openness, in practice, selection processes are often dominated by economic and social filters.
In this context, the approach of Andrea Fraser becomes particularly relevant. In her text The Field of Contemporary Art: A Diagram, Fraser describes the art field as a system of interdependencies—between academies, the market, biennials, and foundations. She points out that artistic legitimacy does not rely solely on competence but also on the ability to operate within these structures. Artistic autonomy turns out to be largely performative—dependent on visibility, self-presentation, and strategies of participating in the institutional game.
Today, the artist’s status requires staging one’s own role—both within academia and in the art world. This includes not only building narratives around projects, but also maintaining a presence on social media, fostering relationships with curators, and creating a personal brand. Recognition thus becomes not merely a question of the quality of one’s work, but also of the ability to maneuver within the discourses of symbolic power.
Small Compromises invites reflection on what it means today to be a professional artist. Does success mean genuine development, or is it about conforming to the system? Do academies still legitimize artists, or is their role waning in the face of the growing dominance of markets, digital platforms, and informal prestige networks?
The works presented explore these questions from various perspectives. Some investigate narratives constructed through technology, exposing their manipulative potential (Kat Zavada, Horacy Muszyński). Others address issues of social origin and upward mobility (Agata Jarosławiec), human aspirations and their limits (Grzegorz Demczuk, Nadia Markiewicz), or advocate collective values over individual success (Józef Gałązka, Olga Konik).
artists: Grzegorz Demczuk, Józef Gałązka, Agata Jarosławiec, Olga Konik, Nadia Markiewicz, Horacy Muszyński, Kat Zavada;
curator: Jagoda Dobecka;
exhibition design: Konrad Fleszar;
production and graphic design: Natalia Legutko (ASP Gallery)
Organizer: ASP Gallery in Kraków
June 8 – August 31, 2025
Galeria ASP, Basztowa 18, Kraków
The exhibition Small Compromises explores the issue of artistic legitimization, examining both academic career paths and the broader mechanisms of recognition within the art field. Being a “professional artist” today is not just a matter of proficiency or meeting formal criteria, but also of the ability to function within institutions, social networks, and systems of grants and exhibitions.
Recognition is tied to a narrative of success in which failures remain invisible, and artistic work is evaluated in terms of productivity, visibility, and administrative requirements. Artists operating within academia face the need to publish, secure funding, and shape their activities in line with institutional expectations. This raises the question: does recognition truly support creativity, or does it rather impose strategies of self-promotion?
An artistic career requires not only symbolic capital but also tangible resources: finances, networks, and the ability to navigate the complex structures of the art world. Although academies formally promise openness, in practice, selection processes are often dominated by economic and social filters.
In this context, the approach of Andrea Fraser becomes particularly relevant. In her text The Field of Contemporary Art: A Diagram, Fraser describes the art field as a system of interdependencies—between academies, the market, biennials, and foundations. She points out that artistic legitimacy does not rely solely on competence but also on the ability to operate within these structures. Artistic autonomy turns out to be largely performative—dependent on visibility, self-presentation, and strategies of participating in the institutional game.
Today, the artist’s status requires staging one’s own role—both within academia and in the art world. This includes not only building narratives around projects, but also maintaining a presence on social media, fostering relationships with curators, and creating a personal brand. Recognition thus becomes not merely a question of the quality of one’s work, but also of the ability to maneuver within the discourses of symbolic power.
Small Compromises invites reflection on what it means today to be a professional artist. Does success mean genuine development, or is it about conforming to the system? Do academies still legitimize artists, or is their role waning in the face of the growing dominance of markets, digital platforms, and informal prestige networks?
The works presented explore these questions from various perspectives. Some investigate narratives constructed through technology, exposing their manipulative potential (Kat Zavada, Horacy Muszyński). Others address issues of social origin and upward mobility (Agata Jarosławiec), human aspirations and their limits (Grzegorz Demczuk, Nadia Markiewicz), or advocate collective values over individual success (Józef Gałązka, Olga Konik).
artists: Grzegorz Demczuk, Józef Gałązka, Agata Jarosławiec, Olga Konik, Nadia Markiewicz, Horacy Muszyński, Kat Zavada;
curator: Jagoda Dobecka;
exhibition design: Konrad Fleszar;
production and graphic design: Natalia Legutko (ASP Gallery)
Organizer: ASP Gallery in Kraków