Haruspex' by Krzysztof Grzybacz at Pace Gallery London

Photo: Divulgação
Pace Gallery London presents the first solo exhibition in the UK by Krzysztof Grzybacz (Poland, 1993), featuring around ten new paintings — including the largest single-surface canvas the artist has ever created. The title, Haruspex, refers to the ancient divinatory practice of reading the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals — a metaphor for how Grzybacz reads the body: as a repository of memories of past selves that remain visible as we age. A graduate of the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, where he still lives and works, the artist shifts his usual focus — the relationship between everyday objects, the human body, and nature — to the body as a site where memory, instinct, and experience accumulate in layers. The paintings arise from studio sketches and fragments of the subconscious, without forming a linear narrative. Hidden flowers woven into painted textiles refer to earlier series; nature emerges as a counterpoint to urban life. His instinctive palette is informed by the scientific theory that the evolution of colors in plants influenced the chromatic perception of animals and humans, also serving as a direct reference to queer identity.