![The image shows a painting entitled Studnia [The Well], a blue well set against a blue sky and a green meadow](/fileadmin/_processed_/c/1/csm_Studnia_2___niebieska___akryl__p%C5%82%C3%B3tno__60x55_cm__2013_a8a36ad5c0.jpg)
Marian Kępiński’s work remained resistant to passing fashions and rapid shifts in artistic language. The artist consistently constructed his own distinctive world: quiet, contemplative and grounded in careful observation of reality, while at the same time remaining open to what is intuitive, invisible and metaphysical.
As the exhibition curator dr hab. Aneta Pawłowska writes:
Road, the first word in the exhibition title, can be interpreted in many ways. It is the artist’s biographical journey, the path of his creative maturation but also a metaphor for a spiritual search for meaning and the order of the world. In Kępiński’s paintings, the road does not always appear literally. It may take the form of a landscape opening towards the horizon, an empty space or an arrangement of forms guiding the viewer’s gaze beyond the limits of visibility.
Nature occupies a central place in this body of work. However, it is not merely a painterly subject.
For Kępiński, nature becomes a space for spiritual communication with reality, a place where human beings encounter an order greater than themselves, notes Prof. Pawłowska. Landscapes, solitary trees, stones, light and quiet spaces, in his paintings, become vehicles of contemplation, wonder and questions about the mystery of existence.
The third key word of the exhibition is memory. It returns throughout the artist’s work through recollections of his native Kamionka, the place of his childhood and spiritual roots. Yet this is not an attempt to reconstruct a specific landscape. As the curator emphasises, this place “returns in these paintings as an inner landscape: a space of memory, emotions and primal experiences of contact with nature”.
In Marian Kępiński’s paintings, ordinary objects and elements of reality transcend their literal meaning. A well becomes a symbol, a road a metaphor for searching and light acquires spiritual significance. This is painting that does not offer simple answers but instead invites viewers to pause, look attentively and engage in a personal experience.
In an era of accelerated image consumption, Marian Kępiński’s art gains particular relevance. It teaches us to look patiently and reminds us of the value of concentration and reflection
– concludes Aneta Pawłowska.
Opening of the exhibition: 18 September 2026, 6.00 p.m.
Exhibition duration: until 11 October 2026
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 12.00 noon to 4.00 p.m.
On 9 October at 6.00 p.m., a discussion accompanying the exhibition will also take place. Further details will be announced soon.
The exhibition ROAD, NATURE, MEMORY forms part of a series presenting the work of outstanding artists and educators associated with Łódź’s academic community, organised as part of the cooperation between the University of Lodz and the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. Previous exhibitions in the series have included:
Światłoczuły (in Polish)
Przenikanie (in Polish)
Hommage à Grzegorz Sztabiński – „Ciąg dalszy…” (in Polish)
Andrzej Jocz. Ocalić od zapomnienia (in Polish).
Edit: Jolanta Sławińska-Ryszka (Centre for Organising Cultural Events and Conferences, University of Lodz)
