![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/rsz_6_venting_my_dream_54x72-_acrylic_on_woven_canvas.jpg\" "\\"rsz_6_venting_my_dream_54x72-_acrylic_on_woven_canvas\\"")
<\/a>Ed Niedzielski, Venting my dream, 2015, acrylic on woven canvas, 54 x 72\u00a0inches<\/p>\nA central concept in Niedzielski\u2019s work is his \u2018handle\u2019, “Peace XOX”, which relates to love, imbued with the sense of optimism that makes us want to live. The desire to be happy is complicated because we are often searching in vain for that elusive condition. On an Existential level, we are unable to locate experience and our means of describing it through language is woefully inadequate. Yet, the impossibility of ever finding it does not negate the will to search and utter our love. Niedzielski is relentless in his quest to express the peace he hopes to find in his work. One painting is titled \u201cThe Point of This\u201d, indicating the obfuscation that lies before our apprehension. The question is: how to \u2018see\u2019 through to the unseen other. Niedzielski\u2019s abstractions are attempts to plumb the mystery.<\/p>\n
XOX, the sign for hugs and kisses, is used obsessively in his work, yet his process explodes the prosaic into an abstract language that awakens our primordial urge to comprehend. These paintings are very disciplined lines of \u2018text\u2019, which offer the illusion of transcription since the artist has severed the letters and spliced them in myriad combinations. The lines run either horizontally or vertically, thus referencing Occidental and Oriental modes of reading. Colours in these very formal text pieces are usually rich darks set against gold, emphasizing value much like the medieval Madonna paintings.<\/p>\n
Text has been utilized as a design element since the Russian Constructivists, with artists like Jasper Johns elevating the practice in Modernist painting, partially satirizing histrionic Abstract Expressionist existential angst before the \u2018void\u2019. John\u2019s Dadaistic use of language devolved into Pop art, with diverse artists like Roy Lichtenstein and General Idea, using letters in their own contexts. Niedzielski\u2019s usage has more affinity with Johns. Indeed, one of his works uses the XOX motif in an American flag, referencing him directly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although Niedzielski\u2019s work is abstract, some of his paintings remind one of Keith Haring\u2019s pieces. Both artists have explored exhibition spaces outside the gallery system. Haring is famous for his subway graffiti transgressions and Niedzielski has explored putting text onto street hoardings, engaging the public in a dialogue. Many of his paintings have various wriggling shapes bound together in a colourful manner that echoes Haring\u2019s comical figures in their all-over configuration.<\/p>\n Some modernist artists questioned the supports and materials they were painting on. In Europe, the movement called \u2018Arte Informel\u2019 exposed the work of artists like Antoni Tapies and Alberto Burri, synchronous with the advent of Abstract Expressionism in the US. Their works explored non-traditional materials like hessian, clay and furniture. Niedzielski also uses non-traditional materials and weaves small strips of canvas to create surfaces. The holes that become visible between the \u2018warp and weft\u2019 activate a sculptural zone that intersects with the painted shapes. He applies his paint with a palette knife exclusively, building up every line and shape to express a textural identity, sometimes smooth, \u2026sometimes rough, \u2026but always tactile. The Minimalist, Robert Ryman, had a similar attitude for applying paint to his surface, concerned with registering the object without illusion. Sometimes he painted on the reverse side of his canvasses. Niedzielski\u2019s work is less austere and more joyful, but he is just as concerned with treating the support sculpturally, painting on every surface.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>Ed Niedzielski, Love Conquers All, 2014, acrylic on canvas w-paper, 54 x 48\u00a0inches<\/p>\n<\/a>Ed Niedzielski, Call me sweet heart, 2015, acrylic on woven canvas, 54 x 72\u00a0inches<\/p>\n<\/a>Ed Niedzielski, My Blue is Over Your Orange, 2015, acrylic 54 x 72\u00a0inches<\/p>\n