Soul Engravings

by Cork based Polish artist Artur Grejner. 

Dates: Wed 28 June - Wed 12th July 2023

Location:  MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade, Cork City

Viewing times:  11.00am – 4.00pm / Mon-Fri

Soul Engravings will be Artur Grejner’ s first retrospective exhibition which will include a sample of his practice of over 20 drawings-a-year over 20 years.

His practice has been associated as an outsider artist or as a punk artist, however Artur Grejner practice is uniquely his own. Grejner believes that his art form.

“Is all about feelings and emotions, the process of creation for me…. it’s always a mystery. However, you can see my moods in my artistic practice: grotesques, melancholic, erotica ….” 

Artur Grejner is a Cork-based, Polish visual-artist who is driven by his fascination with living inside the art he creates, and with time as a discrete entity of life itself.  He predominantly works in the creation of monochromatic images that to the viewer appear raw, surreal even outlandish - dreamscapes that are mystical lands -magical.

His work is about himself. His practice depicts his inner dialogue. His art liberates his soul and acts as a positive, tangible conduit for his own personal fulfilment. Through his artistic pieces he explores humanity through emotions and embodiment. Stripped of our mental identity into raw energy. His work is for self - rather than for any ego or any real reliance on commercial value.  Grejner is, moreover, absorbed in the process, creating in an untrained, spontaneous way. Grejner ‘s influences come from the world of mythology, embracing ancient, Slavic, pagan traditions of central Europe alongside classical Greco-Roman myths and legends. In so doing he creates his own unique pictorial mythology. 

The Soul engraving art exhibition has been a yearlong project in its conceptualising, rationalisation and implementation that has being supported by the MTU Crawford College of Art & Design and by several locally based Cork and professional artists acting as curatorial advisors. Including visual artists Orla O Byrne and Joe Mc Nicholas, Performing artist Francesca Castello, sound /video artist Claire Guerin and art Psychotherapist Patrick Byrne.

Artist Bio - Artur Grejner - Born Poland 1976 - B.A. Polish philogy   

* “A modern definition of outside art is encapsulated by John Mc Gregor in his statement that ‘[outsider art].. is art created under the conditions of a massively altered state of consciousness, the product of an unquiet mind.’ Outsider art embraces the notion that art has a multitude of forms and can be made by artists who are untrained and work by and for themselves independent to any formal art training. There are no boundaries in the forms of art that are made, and the ownership and flow remain with the artist.”

Ref:  Rexer, l ( 2005) How to look at Outsider art, Adams , New York

Grejner embraces some aspects of the genre of outsider art with the notion of ‘what is art?’   While remaining true to himself, he is comfortable with sitting at the fringes of any classification or associations of his practice to any movement. His art practice serves as a tool to capture and share his insight into the human condition and the world around him. He seeks to find answers to the fundamental questions of, who we are, where we come from and where we are going. Working to his own sense of the question of ‘what is art?’

Encouraged to display his works in public “Soul engravings “will be Artur Grejner’s first retrospective exhibition which includes a sample of his practice of over 20 drawings a year over 20 years.

Grejner is driven by his fascination with living inside the art he creates and time as a discrete entity of life itself: the way our lives are revealed in transience; the realisation of our mortality; our ever-diminishing life span all acting as driving forces unconsciously or otherwise. His work is about himself. His practice depicts his inner dialogue. His art liberates his soul and act as a positive tangible conduit for his own personal fulfilment. Through his artistic pieces he explores humanity through the emotions and embodiment - stripped of our mental identity into raw energy. his work is for self - rather than for any ego or any real reliance of commercial value. Grejner is thereby absorbed by the process, creating in an untrained, spontaneous way.  

“It’s all about feelings and emotions, the process of creation for me…. it’s always a mystery. However, you can see my moods in my artistic practice: grotesques, melancholic, erotica ….” 

He predominantly works in the creation of monochromatic images that to the viewer appear raw, or surreal and outlandish - dreamscapes that are mystical, magical.  Aspects of Grejner’s work also depicts abstract undertones of human sexuality - semi - erotic messages that are neither lurid or pornographic - that will intrigue an audience to look again as his work his like a tapestry of infinite symbolic imagery.

His artistic works therefore holds therapeutic value such that each of his creations lie comfortably in the realms of art as therapy, with the main tenet at play being expression rather than technique. Expression that heals, reveals, brings understanding. 

Grejner ‘s influences come from the world of mythology, embracing ancient Slavic pagan traditions of central Europe alongside classical Greco-Roman myths and legends. In so doing he creates his own unique pictorial mythology. 

In addition, this exhibition from the outset was also built and developed with the inclusion of   welcoming in the public into the space - rather than being exclusively to those involved in the creative arts. 

There is a free admission, and all are welcomed.