Piotr Janas
April 9 - May 7, 2005
Opening reception:
Saturday, April 9th, 6:00 - 8:00pm
The Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco is pleased to present the first west-coast exhibition of Warsaw-based artist Piotr Janas. Janas’ work, which is predominantly large-scale paintings, straddles the line between the abstract and the figurative. Paint drips and pours are juxtaposed with graphic, almost cartoon-like figures that are still seemingly non-representational. The ambiguity of the graphically rendered abstract figures verges on surrealism but combined with Janas’ visceral treatment of the paint. With this tension he is able to address the desire of the viewer for pictorial resolution by not providing the too many ready-made narrative or representational clues.
Piotr Janas’ work was exhibited in the 50th Venice Bienalle, in 2003, and has been shown at Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch in Berlin, the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow, the Wrong Gallery in New York, Galeria Bielska BWA in Bielska-Biala and in Warsaw at Galeria Promocyjna, Galeria Rotunda, and the Foksal Gallery Foundation.