PRESS RELEASE
FLORIAN WOZNIAK - Dreamer | 30 Years of Sculpture
Mar 26 – Apr 20, 2021
FLORIAN WOZNIAK
DREAMER | 30 YEARS OF SCULPTURE
26 March - 20 April 2021
REQUEST PORTFOLIO | +44 (0) 20 7590 9991
Everard Read London presents a solo exhibition of Florian Wozniak's sculpture, spanning three decades.
Wozniak's practice has been described as a "looking at people through the eyes of a poet"* and the artist maintains that "the true prize is the satisfaction of distilling something of value into a poetic image." Certainly, Wozniak's work concerns itself with the beauty and emotion of moments of pondering and the whimsical, often playful, observation of the architecture of a scene. As the artist responds to impulses of desire, memory, fear, hope, anticipation and gratitude, he intuitively manipulates the becoming form, transforming it from inert clay or stone into an image that carries emotional content in its human curves and posture.
The human form is the nucleus of Wozniak's expression, a focus intensified by the growing threat of displacement of the body, by technology. His work has an earthiness of form but his sensuous, voluptuously-proportioned sculptures don't rely on "sexuality or the grotesque”* for their impact; instead they appropriate more subtle gesture to depict human beings in relationship with each other and the wider world.
Wozniak's sculptures can be tender and endearing, playful and witty, his figures often evoking pathos or humour. He acknowledges a rejection of what he describes as "self-indulgent post-modernism, which often explores misery for its own sake."
Instead, optimism is implicit in every piece Wozniak sculpts and is palpable in the finished objects, with titles such as Hope, Mirth, Couple and Dreamer. It is no surprise Wozniak identifies so strongly with the sentiment of 20th century, Italian sculptor, Arturo Martini, when he said, "In this Babylon, where everyone has lost [their] senses, my sculpture could bring them some joy in its clarity and vibrancy."
Florian Wozniak has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at the Everard Read galleries in South Africa and London. This is his first solo exhibition with Everard Read London.
*Paul Williams, art critic, 2004
