In his paintings, Kamil Sarnowski walks the line between abstraction and representation. The artist says that he aims “to create a form in which the human presence is tangible, all the while shying away from painting the organic.” Sarnowski exerts that human presence by applying a strong sense of light, color and composition to images of fantastical objects. Those objects seem to have no basis in reality, but are rendered with such precision and scale that they assume an eerily three-dimensional effect. Light plays across sensuously curving surfaces that bring sports cars or motorcycles to mind, and intense colors further sharpen the sense of contrast and high definition.
Despite these effects, Sarnowski, who lives and works in Cracow, Poland, never goes too far away from natural forms. A rippling metallic surface might carry strong hints of a field of flowers, or an object that looks like a sci-fi character’s helmet may mimic a human skull. Such contrasts allow him to create a world in which fantasy and reality merge in a unique way.