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PETER BARELKOWSKI

Powerhouse painter Peter Barelkowski’s artistic career spans decades and continents. Educated in Fine Arts at the University of Poznań, Poland’s Goldsmith College, and OCAD University in Toronto, Barelkowski has lived and worked in London, UK, and Norway. His works are held in private and public collections across Europe, the United States, and Canada.

 

Barelkowski’s oil paintings blend cultural narratives with personal memories, presenting surreal vignettes populated by cartoonish figures from a world that feels both distant and familiar. Humor, tension, serenity, and a subtle undercurrent of melancholy are conveyed in his profound and timeless paintings.

 

Micak Contemporary Art Gallery features several works from Barelkowski’s Exodus and Minded Spaces Series.

 

The Exodus Series explores themes of isolation, displacement, and migration. Figures, silhouettes, and shadows move in single file across expansive landscapes, divided by sharp horizons of land or sea. Scattered ladders—symbolizing potential escape routes—go unnoticed by the travelers on their endless journey. These paintings operate as both a specific and universal meditation on migration and its deeper meanings.

 

In the Minded Spaces Series, Barelkowski revisits his early experiments with color and composition. These vibrant, tranquil scenes evoke fleeting memories and invite viewers to interpret their half-told stories, blending nostalgia with imagination.

© Micak Contemporary Art Gallery 2025

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