K&K Art Galeria » Mikołaj Jackiewicz

Mikołaj Jackiewicz - essay

Tytuł

12 March 2026

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Mikołaj Jackiewicz’s work gives the impression of constant motion—as if the painting were never finished, but remained in the process of becoming. Looking at his works, it is hard to escape the feeling that we are not seeing a final result, but a record of a gesture, a trace of emotion, a fragment of energy arrested on canvas. This painting does not so much depict the world as experience it—intensely, almost physically. His work belongs to the current of contemporary expressive painting, in which the intensity of experience and the energy of the creative act itself matter more than a realistic representation of the world. An analysis of his works reveals a clearly developed visual language that balances between abstraction and transformed figuration.

The most striking feature of Jackiewicz’s painting is the way he handles color and gesture. His paintings have been described as a “spectacle of expression and color,” in which hues “vibrate” and brushstrokes are dynamic and irregular. This “vibration” is not accidental—it builds visual and emotional tension, compelling the viewer to engage actively with the work.

In works such as “Flowers” and “Flowers in the Wind” contrasting colors—red, green, and yellow—dominate, creating an almost organic chaos reminiscent of the living structures of nature. The aim, however, is not to depict plants realistically, but to capture their energy, movement, and changeability.

In this respect, Jackiewicz continues the tradition of gestural painting, in which a painting records an action—as in the work of Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning. Yet unlike them, he does not entirely abandon references to the depicted world.

The diversity of techniques is also an important element of his work. The artist works in oil and acrylic, as well as mixed media, also using pastel, marker, and lacquer. This variety of materials is reflected in the texture of his paintings—which is often dense, layered, and almost relief-like.

The materiality of the painting becomes just as important as its composition. The paint builds the form. In this sense, Jackiewicz draws close to the tradition of matter painting, represented, for example, by Jean Dubuffet.

For Jackiewicz, color is not a means of description, but a language in its own right. It spreads broadly, pulses, and clashes with other hues in tensions that recall natural phenomena more than an ordered composition. Reds seem to boil, greens breathe, and yellows flare like light filtering through leaves. In these paintings, nature is not depicted—it happens. Motifs of flowers, trees, or landscapes appear like echoes of reality, but quickly dissolve into the painterly element, losing their literalness in favor of an impression.

Jackiewicz is forceful. His paintings are not an exercise in quiet observation—they are more like entering into the heart of a phenomenon, immersing oneself in its intensity.