Pawel Mendrek

Pawel Mendrek

Vienna, Austria

»My works are not about the thematisation of reality, but rather about the specific thematisation of interpretation of reality.«

Pawel Mendrek is a visual artist, curator, art director, production designer and film producer based in Vienna. His practice includes mixed media works, storytelling and moving image experiments, set and exhibition design and production of collective projects. Besides he is an Associate Professor, Head of Faculty of Intermedia and Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and guest lecture at Chelsea College of Arts in London.

Enabling artistic experimentation

Currently he is investigating and working on the subject of identity and reflects his own identity being torn between his professional, international practice and his Polish origins. Through development of the Parallax project between Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice Chelsea College of Arts London, Valand Academy Gothenburg and Plymouth University, he takes an opportunity to discuss issues concerning the role of the art academy and the educational processes it involves itself in.

Multiple techniques

Mendrek’s work is broad and includes diverse techniques such as practice research and mixing technique experiments. Mendrek’s material of choice is paper so his range of works combines painting, photography, drawing, objects and collages. By overcoming those borders of those genres, he is redefining his artistic vision. Multiple study programs and academic mentors in Vienna and San Francisco influenced his techniques.

An international resume

Pawel Mendrek has exhibited nationally and internationally including group shows at Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, Kunstlerhaus Vienna, Museum of Art, Taiwan, Sienna Art Institute in Italy, Kronika Gallery Bytom, BWA Gallery in Cracow and Bielsko-Biala and as well in Mill&Short Gallery in San Francisco. He has been nominated for various art prices such as the Grand Prix International Biennale of Digital Graphic Art, Gdynia, the Grand Award of Academy of Art Collage in San Francisco and the Strabag Art Award. With Malgorzata Szandala and Ewa Zasada he is a member of Travel Agency Art Collective that realizes nomadic exhibitions and actions. Currently he is represented by the Loft Acht Gallery.

Pawel Mendrek, 2020-2023
Artwork Series

Archeologies of the Fiction Stories

6 artworks
from € 480 to 3,000

This multi-layered series of works deals with the theme of utopia and utopian thinking, suspended between the public and the private sphere, combined with a slightly futuristic vision of the world. It shows the relationships between its elements on the metaphorical level. The persistence of systems, all of which have a touch of utopia "eroded" with time by the rapid current of life, proves momentary. In the words of Zygmunt Bauman, u-via replaces u-topia, and the temporality of the proposed […]

Pawel Mendrek, 2018-2023
Artwork Series

Ariadne

3 artworks
from € 630 to 1,090

In the past hair was identified with the soul. Rytual haircutting is a method of transformation. Hair as the object of the exhibition becomes a tool with which to measure time. Understood as the framework for life, be it real or fictional, hair is a tool for shaping the form of corporeal coexistence. It delineates the area of our corporeality and the physical boundaries of our existence. The hybrid tangles are frozen reflections of emotional states and passions.

Ariadne revolves around […]

Pawel Mendrek, 2023
Artwork Series

Das Portrait darf keine leeren Räume in sich tragen

1 artwork
from € 2,390

The portrait itself is simple and personal. Personal in relation to its subject as well as its object. Pawel makes portraits because he likes people and he loves to observe them. His portraits are fed by long conversations and a whole range of personal experiences. Each person has their own tone, their own hue, depending on the amount of words spoken in a minute, the sound of an eyelash just falling, the thickness of the jumper worn last Tuesday,- everything counts!

The portrait must not […]

Pawel Mendrek, 2018
Artwork Series

Ritual Paths

4 artworks
from € 630 to 1,010

Ritual Paths exhibition in the Gallery Loft Acht in Vienna takes as its starting phenomenon of ritual dance, which for centuries in various traditions has been located on the borderline of disease aberration, mystical rite and cultural spectacle. Dance usedin various ceremonies performed a catalytic function, released excess energy and discharged the tension of the dancing people. Dance occurred in various traditions, as a codified set of protective gestures, but above all as a sign of […]

Pawel Mendrek, 2023
Artwork Series

Multiple

1 artwork
from € 4,520

Social identity is assumed that the same thing is a complete system consisting mainly of the concept of belonging or not belonging to different social groups. These groups have different values and behavior and moral norms. Crowds are a combination of units, all of which belong to different groups contradictory. However, if the crowd is mainly related to a specific group, the value of this group will dictate the actions of the crowd. In the crowd, which is more ambiguous, people adopt new […]

Pawel Mendrek, 2019
Artwork Series

Amor Vacui

3 artworks
from € 2,520

One may become overwhelmed by surfeit. In a symbolic way, the Amor Vacui exhibition relates to the human need for decoration. Geometry has allowed us to make the world familiar and to record the sequences of states, aggregating the visions created by successive generations. To understand the identity of a placeone needs to look closely at the details of events and their monuments. Carefully planned details, accumulating one after another and coexisting in the geometrical forest – a […]


Other artist's artworks

Nascente
Nascente
Ulisses Lociks Cavalcante de Gusmão, 2022
€ 176
Winneuze
Winneuze
Ptitmarc, 2020
€ 550
Geometric Redux Study after Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks
Geometric Redux Study after Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks
Andre Brik, 2020
€ 208
Medusa
Medusa
Juliana Do, 2022
€ 2,750
Returning to a home
Returning to a home
Irina Georgieva, 2022
€ 4,180
Tanuki 狸
Tanuki 狸
Vinz Schwarzbauer, 2020
€ 690
#dblpng // factory zines // B
#dblpng // factory zines // B
#dblpng aka Pengpengduo , 2019
€ 420
Unterm Teppich #4
Unterm Teppich #4
Natalia Weiss, 2019
€ 1,010
Fritillaria meleagris
Fritillaria meleagris
Isabel Mischka, 2021
€ 1,870
Fragaria
Fragaria
Isabel Mischka, 2022
€ 2,060
Coral Poppies
Coral Poppies
Isabel Mischka, 2021
€ 2,180
Hydrangea I
Hydrangea I
Isabel Mischka, 2021
€ 2,560