The Art Inter/National Exhibition at Boxheart Gallery in Pittsburgh began in January 2002 with the concept of exploring space, how the immediate environment impacts the artistic process and influences what each artist creates. The tradition of this exhibition continues January 9 through January 31, 2009 with notification to the artists selected for participation in the 2009 Art Inter/National Exhibition. Inspired by the prestigious Carnegie International, Box Heart Gallery is thrilled to offer the Pittsburgh community an intimate, yearly alternative. Over 220 entries, from regional, national, and international artists, were received this year. Of these entries, 20 artists were selected for participation and 28 works of art in a variety of media will be exhibited. Included is Maciej Hoffman, who has been a Premiere Portfolio member at absolutearts.com since July 2008.
The artwork selected for this year’s Art Inter/National Exhibition respond visually to the Hegelian dialectic. The work aims to make visible the control modernized language and guided thought has taken over social evolution. In some cases, such as Charles Caldemeyer’s architectural encaustic paintings or Lidia Simeonova’s contemplative figurative paintings the artwork depicts man, alone in the universe, filling the vacuum left by religion with materialism. In other cases, the power of the dialectic in political issues that demand taking sides is presented. Whether viewing Cherie Tymkiw’s “Young French Muslims Riot Against Discrimination and Deprivation” or Susan Kirby’s “Signal Quilt: from the Katrina Series,” the viewer is challenged to step outside the dialectic. The artwork in this year’s Art Inter/National demonstrates the power of individual rights. Artwork like Deanna Mance's "Ticker Tac," Susan Constanse's "Unreal Spaces," or Sarah Wiseman's "Assembled and Linked Together" seeks to uncloak the invisible dialectic of communitarian law which hides the beauty of nature's true mechanics and aims to demolish personal conscience.
For fifteen years Maciej Hoffman worked for one of the biggest Polish advertisement agencies in the country, which after communism started with its capitalistic adventure. Providing conceptual and creative work in the planning of marketing campaigns, Hoffman participated in creating marketing spots, press and radio campaigns and outdoor advertisements. Several years ago Hoffman left the world of business and came back to his basic and important occupation – painting.
In his series "Marketing Civilization," are observations of the contemporary style and content of life looked at from the perspective of the necessity and omnipresence of consumption. Our needs were mostly reduced to intellectually comfortable and psychologically exhausting contenting ourselves with the consumption of the world instead of giving something from ourselves to create the world. Our everyday lives became dominated by work and pursuit of products attacking us from the store shelves and by the pictures that are generated for the needs of this invasion. The reality under the thumb of the economy gave birth to a culture which would rather sell images created by others than create its own ones.
Hoffman's paintings refer to the composition of press advertisements and to the search for a stronger influence on people. Thus the poster-like flatness of the background and the strong color which, in the marketing world, makes the message clearer and attractive to the product. It is Hoffman's attempt of drawing the attention to what the world looks like from this perspective.
”Marketing Civilization” touches on how the advertisements ruthlessly use the symbols and appropriate them for commercial needs. Symbols and authorities which are deeply rooted in our consciousness are a pretext for pushing you any product, a beverage, a screw or even “an independent opinion” just by putting in the ad a man dressed up in a white lab-coat or wearing a dog collar.
On the other hand, we all function in this reality, with relationships built by the marketing and advertisement world which can be brought down to the fact that you always find yourself in one of the roles, a buyer, a seller or a person being sold. You can indeed exist as a product. Your absence in this chain of relations condemns you to a kind of nonexistence.
View more of Maciej Hoffman's work in his Portfolio at absolutearts.com http://www.absolutearts.com/portfolios/h/hoffman
IMAGE
Maciej Hoffman
Marketing Civilization: Trade 4
Oil on Canvas
64" X 72"
$8,000
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