Dawid
Planeta

Born and raised in Poland, Dawid Planeta was always surrounded by art – his father is a photographer and his mother an art teacher. He studied industrial design at Cracow’s Academy of Fine Arts, but found it less than inspirational. His passions lay instead with art and photography, but also psychology, mythology, symbolism and the mysterious world of the subconscious.

Planeta deploys digital techniques to create moody, introspective works that are simultaneously strangely familiar and disturbingly fascinating. “Art is about going to the edge of consciousness”, he says, “where the basic layer of reality starts fading away to reveal an entirely different world beneath. It’s a place of memories that are yet to happen, where the future and the past are one. My art is a window that can help you to reconnect with deep parts of your mind, parts you often ignore.”

Planeta’s best-known works come from the series of greyscale images entitled Mini People. They explore the artist’s personal experience with depression, visualizing the mental journey through dark times. “It’s the story of a man descending into darkness and chaos to face the parts of his mind he’s been neglecting for so long,” Planeta explains.

A small figure features repeatedly in this poignant series, perhaps representing Planeta himself. He is pictured wandering through a fog-filled labyrinth, bravely facing the ominous jungle animals with fiercely glowing eyes shining through the darkness. They seem to be guiding him through the deep jungle, “to find his inner strength, to find the light and come back with it.”