Press

Out of this world

By Vinita Bharadwaj, Staff writer

Tomek Setowski takes the real, sketches it and transforms it into the unreal.

Polish artist Tomek Setowski doesn't like to talk about his sporting past. No matter that he might have represented Poland at international tourneys - he really doesn't want me to say. "It's the art we're here to talk about," he says with a smile. The art, really, does offer quite a bit to talk about. Setowski, who is from Czestohowa, says it's fantasy surrealism. "That's how it's officially known," and he shrugs. Hanging along the walls of Dubai's Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Setowski's paintings have a childlike disposition, but captivate viewers and passers-by who stop by to inspect the smaller images that have collaged themselves onto the larger canvas.

As the artist scrutinises the lighting with the occasional " Tsk, tsk", he explains his agenda for the rest of the month. "I'll be here till the end of July and will be painting in the lobby and leave the final painting as a gift. From Tomek to Dubai."

The painting, he says, could be inspired by Dubai, or not. He could paint for two hours everyday, or not. It won't, for sure, have the camels and horses that would automatically have qualified for Setowski's work by sheer virtue of their fairy-tale characteristics.

"If anything, I think I will take cues from the architecture," he says. And of the different styles that dot the Dubai landscape, it is of the Emirates Towers that Setowski has become an unabashed admirer. "Those two towers are beautiful. They remind me of the Twin Towers that fell in New York," he says.

A number of the 32 works that Setowski is exhibiting in Dubai feature paintings that are originally stirred by architecture, with Italian influences appearing strongly. Attributing those to his first visit to Italy, other regulars in his artworks are clocks, which he says is because of his respect for time.

"I think time is a universal concept that cannot be avoided by anyone. How we interpret it and what we choose to do with it is an individual choice," he says pointing to his different clocks that are represented by varying traits.

Setowski's works are permanently featured in two Polish galleries. The artist owns one of them, which he has imaginatively titled, The Museum of Imagination.

The photographs that he shares show that it's styled in a manner befitting his works. Though on the surface they may appear to be exclusive decorative works for children's rooms, Setowski's paintings are, by his own admission, his perception of the world as he sees it.

He takes the real, sketches it and transforms it into the unreal setting that becomes his painting.

However, a patient examination reveals a string of stories that could end happily ever after or not. There's the balloon with the word LOVE written on it. It heads towards a castle with a pretty girl peering out. A fairy-tale romance? Perhaps, but if you look closer there's a needle waiting for the balloon to burst.

Initial observations might tempt viewers to slot him with Dali, Bosch or Escher, but the right-handed artist says that the three have had huge influences on him. During his formal training years at art school, Setowski studied the history of art, in which time, he says, he was greatly impressed by the works and style of Bosch.

"He was the biggest influence. I really liked his different approach to art, so that's why there appears to be a similarity. Though the others also impressed me. Art is like any other industry, where someone gives some beginning, the next person adds a new touch to it. It's like electronics, where things are improved and bettered all the time. As Picasso said, ?I keep looking at others' works in order to create my own'."

Between questions, Setowski repeatedly excuses himself to supervise the lights. "To my work, this is critical," he says of the direction in which the fake lights are pointing. True enough, the colours come alive when the lights are on and to achieve this impact, Setowski says that the lights are on right from the moment the first brush of paint kisses the canvas.

"The depth and colour can be experienced only with the right light and all my paintings are about the colours," he says. Though the style has remained constant over the years, Setowski's themes have changed and when he talks through a painting that features an underwater city, he expresses surprise at being informed that Dubai will have an underwater hotel. "Truly then fantasy comes real here," he says.

With admirers ranging across age-groups, Setowski admits that there are people who don't even react to his work. "It happens. They just walk past or don't understand, but I think that there needs to be a certain amount of sensitivity and patience to be able to understand my style of painting."

Selections

His collection in Dubai is mostly made up of oil on canvas with a few oil on boards and there are selections of his works from many series including the underwater and dreams series.

"Sometimes a painting can take me two years to paint. I work on many paintings at the same time as I could get bored of one and need to shift to another. I work on a painting as long as I feel the need and motivation to work on it. As long as I feel there is something missing and that I can contribute to it artistically, I paint," he says. "Though for Dubai, I will make sure that it is completed in the month that I'll be here."