"I don't like to talk," said Andrzej Kozyra, a Polish artist whose work is featured on the Hill this spring. "I like to paint."
On Friday, March 11, from 6 to 9 p.m., the Friedrich Gallery at 14 Boston St., across from Queen Anne Barber shop, hosts an exhibition of paintings by Kozyra.
"The central theme in all of my paintings is time and space," explained Kozyra during a translated phone interview from Poland. "I am interested in the time and atrophy that we all experience."
Kozyra, born in Kracow, Poland, studied art at the Kracow Academy of Fine Arts in a studio of Jan Szancenbach. A painter since childhood, Kozyra enjoys looking at life from a distance and capturing it on his canvas.
"People try to understand paintings," explained Dr. Michal Friedrich, the gregarious Hill dentist, founder of Seattle's International Documentary Film Festival and owner of the Friedrich Gallery. "But in his paintings there really is no understanding. The chemistry is there between me and the painting, but it is my own private connection."
Using a palette of rich colors, intricate details and seductive scenes, Kozyra connects with viewers by painting settings created in his mind.
"What you see comes from my imagination," explained Kozyra. "It is the image of certain places, and since it is imagination, it is an interior world that has its own laws."
Kozyra's internal world has been described as paradoxical and illusionistic. The scenes are realistic and yet, feel otherworldly.
"There is nothing surprising about his paintings," said Friedrich, who met Kozyra in 2004 at Kozyra's one-man show at the Society for Arts 1112 Gallery in Chicago. "They are not shocking. They do not knock you out. But they are warm."
Experience it for yourself. The exhibition opens this Friday and continues until May 15.
"I love his work," concluded Friedrich. "Seattle is a great place for displaying this kind of art. This exhibit is a pearl."
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