"The Afterlife of Buildings" - Zacheta

When visiting Poland in December 2008, I went with my young friend Gosia (who wants to attend the Art Academy in Lodz, Poland this year) to see the new exhibitions in Zacheta, in Warsaw. The Zacheta National Gallery of Art is the oldest exhibition site in Warsaw, with a tradition stretching back to the mid 19th Century. It is located in the heart of Warsaw. (The Zacheta building was one of the few to survive in Warsaw’s city center after the destruction of the Second World War).

They were a few very interesting exhibitions: such as “Welcome to Disco Zacheta - The Afterlife of Buildings” and “Up against the Wall”.
Personally I liked the first one the most. “The Afterlife of Buildings” project was recently presented in the Polish Pavilion of the 11th International Architecture Biennale and it is a provocative presentation of 6 important buildings constructed in Poland in recent years. The curators and artists consider what will happen to these buildings in the future, once the function for which they were constructed is no longer appropriate.
Some of the six buidlings are: the Warsaw University Library, the airport terminal in Warsaw and the sanctuary at Lichen (the biggest church in Poland).

What futures await all the buildings under the new circumstances of the new time? These buildings are important and prestigious today. They are presented in the form of pictures ‘before’ and ‘after’ these great changes. I have to tell you that the future is surrealistic! This project is absolutely amazing. You have to see it!

Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland – address:
pl. Malachowskiego 3
00-916 Warszawa
tel. (48 22) 827 58 54
fax (48 22) 827 78 86
Gallery opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12 a.m. – 8 p.m.Thursdays entrance free.

My FantasyArt images

Some Fantasy Art images, photos and paintings I made.

1. Weird World - based on a picture of the sky I took a year ago at the Beacon Hill. I manipulated the photo, I turned it around.
   
2. Fantasy - The green part of this image is a photo - I took it in Williton, it is a meadow/ a field a few minutes walk from our house here. The dark part I painted in the Adobe Photoshop.
   
3. Fantasy Evening in Cologne - I love Cologne, I think it is a wonderful city, great museums, very interesting collection of art, nice city for a long walk, the old part is small but cosy. And the Cathedral is just amazing. But about the photo - ordinary photo with some extra visual effects - the planets. When we stood at the other side of the river and were taking the photos of the evening, the bridge and the Dom I just thought/ had a vision "it will be wonderful if you could see beautiful big planets in the sky in that spring time...in Cologne (don't do any association with the song Spring Time for Hitler from the Producers (nota bene I love this movie)). Made in Photoshop too.
4. Panta Rhei - my oil on canvas painting. The inspiration for this painting was Callas, Maria Callas. I listened to her singing the most beautiful arias from the less popular operas and just painted. By the way Panta Rhei means " everything is in a state of flux". This is a famous aphorism and it comes from Simplicius but it used to used to characterize Heraclitus, one of the greatest Greek philosophers. Phanta Rhei: the ocean, the bird, and the doors to our desires and our dreams and our subconscious.
   
5. Wormhole - this is pure digital image. I was experimented with Photo Shop and discovered per accident lots of possibilities presented inside the Adobe Photoshop. I drew some stuff and than just used some tools I discovered. It is fun!

More digital images you can find at my facebook page:
http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=20387&id=608063290

I would love to here your comments what do you think about my surreal/ digital/ fantasy art paintings/ work.

Some of the images are available as wallpapers. Here is the link to that page:
http://fantasydragonart.com/wallpaper_download.html