Every journey begins earlier than a physical change of place and ends after a moment of return. It can be subdivided into three stages: the First one is Anticipation, or suppositions and fantasies about a place of destination together with associations which appear in the context of a particular destination and knowledge we possess, defining our expectations. The second stage of a journey is Confrontation of our expectations with the place of our arrival, actual experiencing of a particular space, exploration of the space. The final stage is Reminiscence, which is a memory of what we have actually seen, but functioning inseparably with the two previous stages.

A real reception of a particular place undergoes deformation due to the collision with expectations and, as a result, becomes in our memories a mix of initial fantasies with our emotions and perception of a particular place during our stay.

An account of a journey is always individual and marked with individual perception, prescribed not only by a geographically existing place, but mostly by a person and a personality of the traveler, his individuality, by who he is.

THE TOURIST is a subjective record of Łukasz Stokowski’s peregrinations, forming a synthesis of associations, emotions and memories connected to respective stages of a journey. The artist tells his unique tale of visited places, confronting the viewer with exceedingly expressive canvas, containing a reflection of emotions related to travels and discovering new places.

Characteristically for his work, Łukasz Stokowski’s paintings ‘are happening’. Here, a lack of static quality in representation is a projection of a journey, of movement through space.

The tourist recalls his memories of the journey, describing on canvas the energy of visited places, his emotions, architecture, the surroundings, as well as stories of people he encountered.

Looking at this series, one cannot but notice the common denomination, or a highly graphic, black and white motif, recurring in every painting, which is a peculiar background, but at the same time also their content. In some pieces, the motif is more distinct, in others, it is almost imperceptible. One can conclude that it is the artist’s way of marking places he visited with his presence, his way of ordering them according to his will, but also according to the principle of reciprocity: he draws inspiration from these places and leaves his energy there.

In turn, a very rich, multilayered structure of applied paint reflects perfectly the impression of successiveness of experiencing new destinations, starting with assumptions, through confrontation, up to summaries in the form of memories. Here, the material becomes a physical reflection of the artist’s mental and emotional states distributed in the time of experiencing new places.

The paintings evoke associations with metropolises visited by the artist, while the spectator, feeling the vibration and the atmosphere of his canvas, will surely not resist an injunction to attribute and confront their own impression with the history told by the artist, which will effectively become another stage of these journeys.

Kinga Szafrankowska, Curator