Dominika Lejmana, Monk

The white shadow of an apocalyptic man in the great black void.

In fact, it is three canvases that form a monumental format on which we watch a video projection. And on it: a white medical suit, moved by blown air.

The artist intended the painting to refer to the painting by Caspar David Friedrich entitled The Monk by the Sea from the early nineteenth century, where – as Lejman says – Friedrich confronts the romantic landscape with the human figure as an insignificant detail, overwhelmed by the scale of the “surface” of nature.

After exhaling the air, the “pandemic” costume shrinks and freezes, depriving us of the illusion of life, just as its projection is the illusion of being present in the picture.

Dominik Lejman, born in 1969, is a graduate of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and the Royal College of Art in London. He was born in Gdynia. In 1989-1993 he studied at the State College of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Faculty of Painting and Graphics, and at the Royal College of Art in London in 1993-95. In 1996 he defended his diploma thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Since 2005, he has been running a painting studio at the University of Arts in Poznań. He deals with painting, which he combines with video projections, creates videofrescoes, works in the form of large-format photo wallpapers and projects in public space. Winner of many Polish and foreign awards, incl. Passport of “Polityka” in 2001 and a scholarship holder, incl. RCA, Kościuszko Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Location 1 in New York, Polish Ministry of Culture. The artist’s works have been presented at numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad (including in New York, Brussels, Düsseldorf). He lives and works in Berlin and Poznań.

His paintings play with the viewer, often drawing him into projections, depriving him of autonomy through delay.

Below is a video from which we took our statement for the Eyeopener.