Maciej Rauch

Born in 1988 in Jarosław, where he graduated from the Comprehensive School of Fine Arts, then studied at the Faculty of Graphics of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk from 2007-2012. Apart from graphics, he deals in painting, creates exhibits and video clips. 

I have been observing Maciej Rauch’s artistic career since my arrival in Gdańsk in spring 2009. Back then, he was still a second-year student. His professionally prepared portfolio encouraged me to see his original works 

Both the topic – looking for beauty in death, and his superb mastery of the painting technique surprised me and provoked enough to show his works at the gallery of the Bremen Academy of Fine Arts alongside the German artists Johann Busse and Ele Hermel. The defence of Rauch’s diploma took place on the premises of our gallery. It was a multimedia exhibition entitled “Between the Worlds”, showing painting, graphics, video clips, as well as dolls made by the artist and objects which were three-dimensional elaborations on his illustrations and paintings.

Rauch’s new works are a continuation of his quest for a fairy-tale, unreal, fantasy world represented by media celebrities like the famous Polish group Dick for Dick / Gipsy Pills or the artist’s idol Michael Jackson. Contrary to the diploma works, they are more concentrated on the portrait, the person, less abundant in detail, less baroque in a way. They still enchant the viewer with determined stylistics and refinement. Nothing is left to chance in Rauch’s artistic output, everything constitutes a clear entirety. If we add to that the figure of the artist himself, always properly stylized, “matching” his paintings, we may see here a modern-day example of Gesamtkunstwerk.

Iwona Bigos