Rafał Knop

Graduate of the State Secondary School of Fine Arts in Bielsko-Biała. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, in the Faculty of Painting, in the studio of Prof. J. Walczak. The artist works mainly in oil. Rafał Knop is a painter and an enthusiast of ancient art and Surrealism. For several years he has divided his time between Poland and Tuscany, where every year he organises open-air art workshops for amateur and professional artists. He is a painter who, in his paintings, transforms the tendencies of an age that is hasty, thoughtless and garish, in which reality becomes an imitation and a semblance. Drawing directly on commercialised culture (the swimming pool as a marker of luxury and a symbol of escapism), he goes beyond its limits, expressing a longing for silence. His paintings are idyllic depictions of female bodies, minimalist renderings of props such as a lone palm tree or an open parasol, but also sublimated, futuristic architecture with elements such as enormous windows, labyrinths and stairs leading nowhere, and finally furniture – empty tables, chaise longues and chairs (the presence of the absent). The aura of the works is created by their light and colour palette, kept in shades of ultramarine, pale violets, whites and powdery pinks. The stillness of these irrationally sensual depictions stays in the memory for a long time, evoking extreme emotions and turning the obvious into the non-obvious. Collections: He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, presenting his work, among others, at the BWA Gallery in Bielsko-Biała, and in exhibitions in Warsaw, Kraków, Ghent and Brusek (Belgium), and Casaglia (Italy). His paintings are held in private collections in Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, Italy and the United States.