Individual exhibition
Castra Leuca Arte Contemporânea, Castelo Branco, Portugal
20.09. - 01.11.2025
Castra Leuca Arte Contemporânea, Castelo Branco, Portugal
20.09. - 01.11.2025
Curator: Sandra Birman
Jarek Mankiewicz’s work arises from a fascination with the hidden geometry of the world around us. With a background in graphic arts, the artist transforms fragments of urban space, typography, and architecture into layered compositions that invite the viewer to reconsider the details of everyday life. What may begin as a single typographic character, a small architectural detail beneath a window, or the pattern of a traditional Portuguese tile, evolves into a structure of transparencies, in which each form resonates with the others, creating new and unexpected connections.
Tracing Polish and Portuguese urban and landscape paths, Mankiewicz gathers letterforms and other shapes, which carry cultural resonance in both countries. These are fragments of two distinct cultures that intertwine in his compositions. At the core of his practice lies the principle that “simple elements form a complex whole.” Through semi-transparent acrylic layers, he balances precision and imperfection through brushstrokes.
Forms overlap, dissolve, and reappear, evoking the layered logic of Minimalism and Op Art — movements that found fertile ground in the renewed Portuguese art scene after decades of repression under the Estado Novo (Portugal’s authoritarian regime, 1933–1974). The artist’s pictorial approach — though rooted in the sensibility of printmaking — becomes powerful art when repetition is not mechanical reproduction and modularity is not predictable. This process also echoes other historical resonances: Polish Constructivism, with Henryk Stażewski’s pioneering role, fused graphic design and geometric abstraction with social transformation, rejecting mere ornamentation.
Tracing Polish and Portuguese urban and landscape paths, Mankiewicz gathers letterforms and other shapes, which carry cultural resonance in both countries. These are fragments of two distinct cultures that intertwine in his compositions. At the core of his practice lies the principle that “simple elements form a complex whole.” Through semi-transparent acrylic layers, he balances precision and imperfection through brushstrokes.
Forms overlap, dissolve, and reappear, evoking the layered logic of Minimalism and Op Art — movements that found fertile ground in the renewed Portuguese art scene after decades of repression under the Estado Novo (Portugal’s authoritarian regime, 1933–1974). The artist’s pictorial approach — though rooted in the sensibility of printmaking — becomes powerful art when repetition is not mechanical reproduction and modularity is not predictable. This process also echoes other historical resonances: Polish Constructivism, with Henryk Stażewski’s pioneering role, fused graphic design and geometric abstraction with social transformation, rejecting mere ornamentation.
In this solo exhibition at Castra Leuca Contemporary Art, the modular approach becomes visible. Some works remain autonomous; others interlace into larger structures where edges align — and occasionally break — but, when brought together, merge into greater constellations, echoes of Portuguese Baroque visual logic. Here, balance is not abstract but physical: translucent surfaces interact like mutable membranes, colors float across the canvases, and textured forms demand constant spatial reorganization. A play of hiding and revealing, where the artist decides which spaces we are allowed to cross.
In dialogue with Paul Klee’s belief that “art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible,” Mankiewicz’s works show how urban fragments and graphic icons can become tangible visual systems. The artist unites place and geometric abstraction in a proposal to assemble fragments toward a planet freed from visual vices.
In dialogue with Paul Klee’s belief that “art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible,” Mankiewicz’s works show how urban fragments and graphic icons can become tangible visual systems. The artist unites place and geometric abstraction in a proposal to assemble fragments toward a planet freed from visual vices.
Critic text — Sandra Birman
Mozaika I/ Infinity
160×160 cm / 80×80 cm each
Acrylics on canvas
Cadeirões, cadeiras ‒ Riscas
160×160 cm / 80×80 cm each
Acrylics on canvas
Coleção Infinity - Série
20×20 cm each
Acrylics on panels
Singularidade I
100×81 cm
Acrylic on canvas
100×81 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Singularidade II
100×81 cm
Acrylic on canvas
100×81 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Formas e camadas - Série de gravuras
≈9×9 cm each
Relief monoprints
Press:
