Marcin Korbanek: »Still Frames of Cairo«
Artist Statement:
Upon my first visit to Cairo in early 2017, I was immediately struck by the sensory impact of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the city and its surroundings. It was then that the idea formed to return to Cairo independently and transfer my experiences onto canvas. The motifs in this series showcase the breadth of distinct moments of beauty and awe that I encountered in the architecture, people, landscapes and emotions among the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and in the Western Desert. This is a documentation of my personal connections with Egypt, presented through the prism of my eye and paintbrush. Somedays my eye would focus on the light reflected off of Cairo’s turn-of-the-20th-century building facades, on others a colourful scarf wrapped around the shoulders of a vegetable seller would catch my attention. This series is composed of individual moments, which together display Egypt as seen and lived through my eye. It is my hope to show Egypt as it exists beyond the famous temples, pyramids and holiday beaches.
Vite
Biografie:
Marcin Korbanek is a painter, art conservator and restorer from Poland. He graduated with the highest honors from the Academy of Arts in Warsaw. Korbanek also holds a diploma as an art teacher. Marcin Korbanek has taken part in numerous international “plein air painting” workshops (landscape painting). His works have been exhibited in many cities in Poland as well as in Cairo, Egypt. He conducted several workshops for the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Museum – among others AVAILABLE CULTURE (2014) and ARTRANZYT (2016). Korbanek’s painting style is a unique blend of the wet-on-wet technique found in modernism mixed with inspirations from classical European grand masters.
As an art conservator, Marcin Korbanek restored paintings, sculptures, tombs, castles and wooden objects in Poland, Pompeii (Italy) and Saqqara (Egypt). After working in Egypt on the restoration of a 5000 year old tomb, he decided to return to Egypt to live in Cairo for five months. Here he created a series of paintings that Korbanek exhibited for the first time in July 2018 under the title “STILL-FRAMES” at the Arcade Gallery in Cairo.