U R Not Invited: Live art installation and exhibition
By Karol Kochanowski
EXHIBITION: Thursday 4th September – Tues 30th September
From Monday 1st September, Manchester-based, Polish-born artist Karol Kochanowski will be pitching up in Kosmonaut for one week as he creates a live art installation that will culminate in a month-long exhibition. Following the success of Kosmonaut’s last live art installation, Shape and Verse, Karol will be creating the artwork in its entirety on site. Visitors are encouraged to come and witness the gradual creative process and interact with the elements before they are mounted on the walls.
Unlike any other exhibition at Kosmonaut, Karol’s work promises more of an abstract style, which is constructed through the relationship between the paint, brush and surface. Employing a traditional approach to materials and methods, Karol will create various textures and unusual marks using high quality oil paints, encaustic paste and a range of tools such as squeegees, rollers and even his own hands to produce Kosmonaut’s most colourful and textural exhibition yet.
Inspired by the feelings of indecision and numbness from the modern day problem of receiving too much information, Karol uses different techniques and layers within his work to reflect the various versions of the ‘truth’ that we come across as an audience.
“U R Not Invited illustrates the impossibility of finding the right information – the truth – in today’s society that caters to endless opinions and theories on any given subject. I also wanted to explore how far people can go to reach desired audiences, which often goes to the point of provocation, and how online services and social media influence our language skills.”
Pasta Paul, music and events co-ordinator for Kosmonaut comments “Karol’s style is much more abstract than the artwork that normally graces our walls, combined with the live installation approach that was a success for the last exhibition, we’re really looking forward to such a unique exhibition.”
Karol won the 2013 Ken Bellany Prize and was shortlisted for the Neo:Graduates Prize in the same year. He has exhibited his work across a range of platforms both nationally and internationally, including the People’s History Museum in Manchester and Liverpool Biennial. U R Not Invited launches on Thursday 4th September, but come and visit Karol from Monday 1st September in Kosmonaut to see him work on the artwork as it gradually comes to life.
