Amicale

A Family. Three painters from Cracow. Alicja S?abo? - Urbaniak, Maciej Urbaniak, and Roch Urbaniak. Sometimes it’s all about showing other person what is most important to you. That is the case of my family. Alicja and Maciej Urbaniak are both painters, graduates of Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. Their art is both a way of expressing themselves and, what is most important a way of getting to know people. People who admire similar emotions expressed with art and excitement about world. And most of the times those people become our friends. I remember travelling with my parents in a car packed with their paintings to Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy or Switzerland where once strangers, now friends, were helping them with art shows and exhibitions. Remember – those were the 90ties. One of my first and most important experiences were kind smiling people speaking in a language I didn’t understand, and my parents being able to show me Europe thanks to their art, and also love to people. Years have passed. My parents are still painters, cooperating with galleries and art collectors all around the world. And I have become a painter as well. I have graduated from the same painting faculty at the same Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. And thanks to them, and the genuine power of art to get people together I know there is nothing more important than to travel, meet people and try to connect with them. Because we are all the same. We share the same sensitivity. And art can be our easiest way of understanding each other. In terms of art despite the fact that we share similar love for color and light we all have different means of expression. In case of my mother, Alicja, its pure joy of creation and unleashed frenzy of colors and shapes that somehow always manage to arrange itself into a suggestive landscape or still life. My father, Maciej, adds an element of detailed observation, and a true draftsman skill, that together with his understanding of color allows him to create visions of his beloved Tuscany, Provence and also figurative scenes. And finally me, Roch. Using the language of magical realism I try to show that no matter how far away we may travel, we meet people who share the same stories and emotions. That’s why, looking for inspirations in myth and legends I create paintings that can be seen as meticulous illustrations. I’m also a children book writer, and those paintings sometimes gain second life as actual illustration to my fables. Alicja Urbaniak, Maciej Urbaniak and Roch Urbaniak. Parents and son. We are similar, yet different in a way that can be seen as evolution, an entanglement of three ways of artistic expression. Each one of us has its own means to talk about world but a keen observer can tell that a lot of life experiences that shaped who we are now, we shared together. And it all started with art, that allowed us to see Europe, and then the World. We would like to propose a combined show of three of us. Its about joy and connection. Three artists from the centre of Europe whose art is about the world around us. But not in a way of critical journalism, commenting the current situation. No, it’s about what we love in people and in the world we share.