Tadeusz Biernot
Exhibition Catalogue June 03 - July 02, 2022
Based on a True Story
Abbozzo Gallery 401 Richmond Street West, Unit 128, Toronto ON, M5V 3A8. Tel: (416) 260-2220 www.abbozzogallery.com
Member of the Art Dealers Association of Canada
Front Cover Image: Unpredicted I, See Page 14
Based on a True Story: Works
Based on a True Story I, 2019, 80 x 90 in. Based on a True Story II, 2019, 90 x 60 in. Based on a True Story III, 2019, 48 x 72 in. Based on a True Story IV, 2019, 60 in. round Based on a True Story V, 2020, 48 x 72 in. Based on a True Story VI, 2022, 48 x 72 in. Pleasure Principle I, 2021, 54 x 95 in. Pleasure Principle II, 2021, 56 x 84 in. Sooner or Later, 2020, 60 in. round Uncharted Harbour, 2018, 48 x 60 in. Unpredicted I, 2022, 60 in. round Unpredicted II, 2022, 60 in. round
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List
Foreword We are thrilled to be exhibiting Tadeusz Biernot's most recent work, Based on a True Story, from June 3rd to July 2nd 2022. A departure from his well-known, expressionistic depictions of the human face, Based on a True Story is an exploration of shape, texture and composition. A marriage of Biernot's fascination with cartographic topography and the abstract form, this series was born of the artist's desire to explore the unpredictable nature of his new found technique - a balance between "the creation and destruction of multiple layers of magazine pages, cardboard, packaging and paint." Biernot doesn't consider this technique to be collage, but rather a "structural element of [his] paintings." An experienced eye may be able to make out familiar shapes and forms, take a closer look at "Based on a True Story I" for instance and you can spot the snaking form of Rome's Tiber River. While not all pieces in this series depict a familiar city, they are a bird's eye view of various built environments, capturing growth and evolution in some, and devolution/a return to nature in others. Biernot states: " for me map making is not the end game, it is just an excuse to start a dialogue with a viewer."
- Quincy Shaw, Abbozzo Gallery
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Artist's Statement "To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual"
- Piet Mondrian
I've been visiting Rome quite often, but I started to truly understand the layers of its history through its layout; It was the moment when I got a sixteenth-century map of the Eternal City. By comparing maps of the same place (like Rome) from different years or from different centuries, one can develop its own story of place. The series of paintings in Based on a True Story are deeply rooted in my interest in abstract forms of maps and topography, and, on the other hand, it is inspired by a curiosity, or should I say a strange desire, to explore the unpredictable nature of the technique I'm using. Keeping a constant balance between the creation and destruction of multiple layers of magazine pages, cardboard, packaging and paint, I am using these ready made materials not for their narrative values, as I don't consider them as a collage, but as structural elements to my paintings. An experienced viewer may recognize in some of my paintings bits and pieces of existing urban centres, especially the Eternal City of Rome – which is the subject of my rather large map collection. But for me map making is not the end game, it is just an excuse to start a dialogue with a viewer. It is rather a desire to capture the spirit of an environment that is in constant motion: objects with changing borders, shapes and parameters, a bird's-eye view depicting struggle between order and chaos. One can say that this struggle never ends, therefore it is often hard for me to say when to stop; otherwise I would continue to paint the same piece over and over again. In this dialogue with a viewer my part is to leave to the viewer's imagination enough room to find their own story.
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Based on a True Story I, 2019 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on Canvas stretched on board 80 x 90 in.
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Based on a True Story II, 2019 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on Canvas stretched on board 90 x 60 in.
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Based on a True Story III, 2019 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on Canvas stretched on board 48 x 72 in.
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Based on a True Story IV, 2019 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on Canvas stretched on round board 60 in. round
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Based on a True Story V, 2020 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 48 x 72 in.
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Based on a True Story VI, 2022 Acrylics, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 48 x 72 in.
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Pleasure Principle I, 2021 Acrylics, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 54 x 95 in.
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Pleasure Principle II, 2021 Acrylics, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 56 x 84 in.
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Sooner or Later, 2020 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on Canvas stretched on round board 60 in. round
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Uncharted Harbour, 2018 Acrylic, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 48 x 60 in.
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Unpredicted I, 2022 Acrylics, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 60 in. round
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Unpredicted II, 2022 Acrylics, magazine pages, Liquitex medium on canvas stretched on board 60 in. round
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Biography Tadeusz Biernot was born in 1954 in Czechowice-Dziedzice, Poland. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland in 1979. He went on to teach type design at the Academy for a subsequent decade. In 1989 he moved to Italy and a year later to Canada. In 2005, after fifteen successful years of award-winning creative directing he decided to devote his entire time to painting, his first calling. Tadeusz Biernot has been exhibiting his works since 1979. His paintings are found in private and corporate collections in the United States, England, Italy, Germany, Holland and Canada. Self Portrait of the Artist: Somewhere, Acrylic, pastel, magazine pages and Liquitex acrylic medium, 18 x 18 in.
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Text by Quincy Shaw and Tadeusz Biernot All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission by the publisher © 2022 Published by Abbozzo Gallery 401 Richmond St. West, Suite 128 Toronto, Ontario M5V 3A8 Credits: Images courtesy of Tadeusz Biernot Catalogue by Quincy Shaw Back Cover Image: Based on a True Story VI, See Page 9