Daniel Rycharski
Crown (2023) / Double-Headed Eagle (2023) / Scarecrow (2023) / Tender Armor (2023)
Double-Headed Eagle, photo: Katarzyna Legendź, courtesy of the artist and Gunia Nowik Gallery
Dates
20.9.2024–16.2.2025
Details
Crown (2023)
Steel, human hair, cushion, at We Are a Fairy Tale Inside (2023), Kurówko, Poland, photo: Katarzyna Legendź
Double-Headed Eagle (2023)
Wood, grains of wheat and barley, 124 × 120 cm, at We Are a Fairy Tale Inside (2023), Kurówko, Poland, photo: Katarzyna Legendź
Scarecrow (2023)
Straw scarecrow, various textiles, at We Are a Fairy Tale Inside(2023), Kurówko, Poland, photo: Katarzyna Legendź
Tender Armor (2023)
Wool, steel armor, at We Are a Fairy Tale Inside (2023), Kurówko, Poland, photo: Katarzyna Legendź
Location
Neue Galerie Graz, Graz
Part of
Horror Patriae: Exhibition
Production specifics
Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Künstlers und Gunia Nowik Gallery
Daniel Rycharski bridges a gap between two worlds. As an artist who identifies as LGBTQ+, he would seem more at home in a big city than in the village in which he lives. Yet, Rycharski is also a practicing Catholic and often collaborates with his neighbors for his art projects—including those in the photographs on display, which were originally exhibited at an abandoned farm.
Scarecrow blends a traditional peasant costume with contemporary rural work clothes, addressing Poland’s current economic situation, but also what the artist sees as its spiritual crisis. Crown revisits the biblical image of God giving a crown of white hair to Abraham with hair collected from elderly neighbors. Double-Headed Eagle recasts the Polish national symbol in sheaves of grain, countering the promise of bountiful harvest with the vision of a divided society surveilled by the state. Tender Armor obliquely refers to the folk cult of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa—regarded as the protector of all Poles, especially the vulnerable and marginalized—casting her as a potential ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
Retrospective
Retrospective