Eyes between chin, 2020
I make paintings that range from figuration to abstraction that are prompted by various different sources like memory, found material as well as through the intuitive process of painting. The paintings are also informed by everyday encounters and distractions, meaning that unexpected or unrelated ideas can seep into the work and lead it in different directions.
Rafał Topolewski
Rafał Topolewski lives and works in the UK. Combining his architectural background with fine art training at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Topolewski paints dreamlike, liminal spaces where memory, fantasy, and reality intersect. His oil paintings feature barbed botanical forms, dissolving clock faces, and vacant, glassy-eyed figures, rendered with dry-brush techniques that evoke photographic grain. Drawing on personal archives and digital collages, he balances abstraction and figurative representation to explore the uncanny, the subconscious, and human perception. Topolewski frequently includes self-portraits, highlighting introspection and psychological inquiry. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at GRIMM, Amsterdam; Alice Amati, London; Tabula Rasa Gallery, London; Lundgren Gallery, Mallorca; and the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Topolewski’s work is held in the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Longlati Collection, Shanghai, and Simian Foundation, Shanghai.