He graduated from Faculty of Arts of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. In 2009, he was awarded Kaissering scholarship in Goslar, Germany. He also took part in Bergen Assembly Triennale (2013, Norway), Dionysia Art Residency in Thingeyri (2011, Iceland), Supermarket – international art fair in Stockholm (2011, Sweden), and Manifesta 8 – European Contemporary Art Biennale in Murcia and Carthage (2010, Spain). He lives and works in Warsaw.
“Wheel of History”, 2019
drawings cycle
Mariusz Tarkawian deals with drawing. He usually draws with a pencil. His works have a reporter character and photographic precision. As a rule, they are either works of large formats on which the artist places hundreds of similar or ideologically related elements, or specific series of works consisting of hundreds or thousands of drawings in postcard format. Tarkawian’s theme can be anything; from art history through eroticism to socio-political commentary. The artist draws inspiration from everyday life, media, travel, and unrestrained imagination. “Wheel of History” is a work consisting of several hundred drawings displayed one after the other and assembled into a several-minute looped slideshow. The series includes scenes depicting current intensifying symptoms of nationalism, racism and religious fanaticism in public space of Poland and world. These black and white drawings similar in style to photographs from the 1930s warn that history may come full circle.
