This work belongs to a minimalist and structural visual language. Created using a custom technique combining iron-based pigment and activated rust on recycled cardboard, it explores the tension between repetition, material trace, and surface erosion. The rhythmic composition and subtle contrasts evoke a sense of time’s passage, as if documenting an imprint or memory embedded in matter. The style draws from experimental graphic art, conceptual painting, and the aesthetics of decay.
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The presented works are part of my most recent series, “Oxydation,” currently on view in an exhibition in Warsaw. The project stems from a deep need to remain close to nature and to observe slow, time-based phenomena—especially corrosion, which I approach not as an act of destruction, but as a generative, creative force.
Rather than using rusting metal itself, I introduce corrosion onto unconventional substrates—canvas and cardboard. I work with Fe Blend, a medium infused with metal particles, treating it like paint to create a layered ground. Onto this surface, I activate rust in intentional, thoughtfully composed areas. I also paint directly with rust collected from old nails, and at times I press rusted, discarded objects onto the surface—inviting rust to leave its natural environment and enter the pictorial field.
This is a deliberate and subversive gesture: allowing corrosion to manifest where it doesn’t belong. Rust becomes not only a material, but a memory trace—a painterly tool and co-author of the image. I do not halt the process. I do not know how the piece will evolve over time, which sections it will overtake, or how far it will travel across the surface I’ve carefully prepared.
