Szczepan Pako

The paintings of Polish artist Szczepan Pako are defined by subjects and aesthetics that alternate between romanticism and modernism. There is a striking formal beauty to his nudes, whose warmly textured bodies radiate a soft heat. Fittingly, he cites old masters like Titian among his greatest influences. Aside from his human figures, Pako’s subject of choice is the melancholic, worn-out landscape of the industrial region where he lives. His egg tempera paintings seek to resolve the area’s opposing tendencies towards rigorous efficiency and joyous expression.

These competing impulses between humanism and modernism give Pako’s paintings a universal appeal, gripping viewers with extremely stylized visions of bodies, interiors and streets that are alternately inviting and alienating. He deploys palettes of dreary green and bluish grays to convey disillusionment with the material world, which he juxtaposes spectacularly with the bright reds, pinks and oranges of his human silhouettes. In the end Pako’s romantic humanism wins out, with the loving warmth of bodies gathered optimistically against the cold.