SOHO Galleries Hosts Andrew Bartoz Contemporary Paintings

Written by Eric Alderman Monday, 16 May 2011 23:44

Sydney, NSW.- SOHO Galleries are pleased to exhibit 3 shows of work by Andrew Bartosz. "Figurative Paintings" will be on view from May 28th until June 29th, "Andrew Bartosz Exhibition" can be seen from May 28th until June 15th and "Andrew Bartosz  Paintings" runs from May 29th through June 16th. Andrew Bartosz celebrated paintings hold as a central theme, the celebration of the female form.  His  training provided a great knowledge of human anatomy.  During his formative years he spent many long hours in the Medical Academy, Gdansk, studying aspects of human anatomy and form.

Eroticism is clearly the concern of much of Andrew Bartosz's work, and there are examples amongst the works on view that provide clues to his background as an intellectual figure working with writers and others in the Arts in both Poland and the Lebanon during the 1970's. Andrew Bartosz is a painter who revels in his work and like a long line of previous artists trained in Europe, brings a new vision to his adopted country.  These are the paintings that celebrate both the wonder of sensuality and the love of technical achievement.

As a child Andrew Bartosz attended music school and sang in a philharmonic choir. At about the same time he began his first drawing classes. He says "I felt I was born to be a painter. I could always draw and paint as far back as I can remember." Andrew attended The National College of Fine Arts, Bydgoszcz, Poland and graduated in 1965.  He followed this with a year of study under Professor Marian Turwid and in 1971 completed his Masters degree in Fine Arts, Painting at Copernicus University (UMK) in Torun, Poland.During the years at the university he managed the UMK Art Gallery and the Department of Culture. As a result of his graduation thesis, "Club of Young Polish Artists and Scholars. 1946-1949", he was invited to go to Beirut, Lebanon, and work with the important Lebanese writer Claude Khal. In the years following, Andrew twice received research scholarships to work in the Fine Arts Department at Vienna University and it's associated galleries. In Poland he was artistic advisor to the Civic Centre in Plock, at the same time teaching painting at Copernicus University, UMK in Torun. During this period he exhibited in a number of group exhibitions leading up to his first solo exhibition at the UMK Art Gallery in Torun, Poland, in 1971.

In the years 1973-1976 Andrew held the position of General Designer for National Artistic Events in Poland.  He also continued to practice his art and to teach painting, increasingly finding the world of Art central to his existence. Since his arrival in Australia in 1981 Andrew has consistently exhibited his work in solo, group exhibitions and private gallery collections. His work has been purchased by many collectors both in Australia and overseas. Watercolour is a medium often neglected by mainstream Australian artists in the 90's.  It is a pity, because historically, many of our best painters have produced exciting works in this medium.  We need only to think of the landscapes of Fred Williams, Russell Drysdale, or John Olsen to find outstanding examples of fresh and dynamic use of line and colour.  Likewise the figure studies of Norman Lindsay and Brett Whitley have a spontaneity that they sometimes struggle to achieve in other mediums. Andrew Bartosz has the ability to produce the same excitement in those who love this technically difficult and demanding medium.  He shows a virtuosity in the use of watercolour that comes from years of experience.


Like the nude studies, the landscape paintings show great interest in form.  However, abstraction in these works portraying Australian landscapes, plays a stronger role than in the figurative paintings.  They suggest the intensity of the elements in the tropical northern regions and central desert areas of Australia.  Nothing here is small in scale; the viewer assaulted by the power of landscape and the elements in juxtaposition of twisting form and intensity of pigment.  Again contour and line provide structure to the works but colour often bursts the forms asunder and breaks in a staccato of slashes and dots. Andrew Bartosz is a painter who revels in his work and like a long line of previous artists trained in Europe, brings a new vision to his adopted country.  These are the paintings that celebrate both the wonder of sensuality and the love of technical achievement.

Now in it's 16th year, SOHO galleries is a exciting commercial art gallery, established in Sydney in March 1995, that provides Australian artists with the space and exposure to place artworks in today's contemporary corporate and domestic environments. Opened by the director, Nigel Messenger, with experience exceeding 25 years in the art industry, the gallery offers new works on a regular basis from the wealth of Australia's new and emerging artists in the Soho Art Gallery. SOHO galleries wish to encourage all aspects of creativity in the art world through promotion, exhibition, and placement. Opportunities abound in what is now an ever-shrinking planet, through improved transport services, tourism, and more particularly communication mediums involving visual imagery transfers; the planet is now our market place. The creativity and determination of the new wave of artists, wishing to be exposed and accepted by the world market motivates us. To this end SOHO galleries will continually present exciting, dramatic and provocative works of art in Sydney and to the worldwide art market. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.sohogalleries.net

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