Adimensionalities
PROEMBRION: Adimensionalities
Ryan Joseph Gallery
2647 W. 38th Avenue, Denver, CO 80211
September 10-October 12, 2022
Admission: Free
Review by Madeleine Boyson
During his architectural master’s program at Gdańsk University of Technology, Polish artist Krzysztof Syruć learned that most artists create “the same painting” over and over again. [1] Vexed by this notion, Syruć—who also goes by the graffiti name PROEMBRION, and who had already developed a compelling visual language in that medium—determined to uncover and construct new, anomalous forms. His pursuit of generative abstraction is now assembled in a stunning solo exhibition at Ryan Joseph Gallery titled Adimensionalities, on view through October 12. The 23 works and single mural that comprise the show ritualize the artist’s translations of the unseen world and synthesize biomorphism and parametric geometry into an original, harmonic resonance.
A view of the exhibition Adimensionalities by Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION) at Ryan Joseph Gallery in Denver. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
Syruć works in a variety of media, including augmented reality, digital and graphic design, installation, mural, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but his career began as a kid in graffiti around 1996. The artworks in Adimensionalities—even down to Syruć’s sloped signatures—maintain the motion and spatial intervention of street art in the white-walled space. Eight Exucubes (2022), for instance, combines the wrist movement used in spray painting and the neon-tipped edges in tagged words with what could be the water-cooled processing unit in a personal computer.
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION). Eight Exucubes, 2022, acrylic on linen, 100 x 81 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
But Adimensionalities transcends graffiti and instead builds, just as the gallery handout suggests, “a bridge between graffiti and contemporary fine arts.” [2] Initially, one is overtaken by Syruć’s use of color, as he layers dozens of thin acrylic washes to create wispy bioforms and futuristic patterns in hues ranging from pastel to neon. His mature rainbow palettes recall everything from Construct-O-Straws sets and spirographs to crab legs and chrysalides as in All Components (2019), which feels like a cross between a carnival and a rainbow parachute play tent.
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), All Components, 2019, acrylic on linen, 110 x 80 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
But there’s also a lingering impression that Syruć has playfully visualized spacetime throughout the gallery and in fact, that’s not far off the mark. After listening to the artist speak about his work, it is clear that Syruć is driven by nature and mathematics, using both to construct theories about light, matter, and space and to intuitively develop parametric models—methods that constrain an algorithm to a particular function—that help him better portray the invisible world. [3]
A view of works in Adimensionalities by Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION). Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
Parametricism is a form of analytic geometry, “a group of quantities as functions of one or more independent variables called parameters.” [4] But parametrics is also an avant-garde architectural design movement that uses theoretical and physical algorithms as simulations to generate or “...‘find’ form rather than draw conventional or invented forms.” [5] According to architect Patrik Schumacher, “parametricism is an autopoiesis, or a self-referential system, in which all the elements are interlinked and an outside influence that changes in one alters all the others.” [6]
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), Semicircle, 2022, acrylic on linen, 80 x 120 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
Parametric systems often result in flowing and curvilinear contours as opposed to traditional, box-like structures, and the former are everywhere in Syruć’s work. Semicircle (2022) displays the large titular shape against a striated, pastel backdrop. Look more closely, though, and the viewer sees dozens of “nodal interconnections”—the loci where colors meet—through which the artist has translated light and color into 2D and 3D forms. [7] The semicircle suddenly takes on a new configuration.
A view of Adimensionalities by Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION) with the painting Semicircle on the right. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
A table covered in printouts and journals accompanies the exhibition and provides evidence of Syruć’s lengthy, almost obsessive process for creating algorithms. He began with a color wheel to visualize like and complementary colors and soon moved on to CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black) and RGB (red, green, blue) cubes to better visualize light and dark wavelengths. From there, the artist’s interests (and his color combinations) increased exponentially, and he began using hexagonal, octagonal, and other polygonal frameworks to render new sequences that were “easier to shape” in what he calls a “diagonal style.” [8]
Fours works in Adimensionalities by Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), with the painting Bridge, 2022, acrylic on linen, 150 x 120 centimeters, on the left. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
He now uses the Microsoft Paint feature and other design programs to “generate very complicated 1-bit pixel patterns” and average the statistics of “exuberants” (the word comes from the joy that this exploration brings him) that form his parametric models. By changing one variable—for instance, which color is paired with the others—and thereby changing his parameters, Syruć finds that he can paint with more intuition. Strict criteria ironically allow him more room for improvisation, and the results are both mind-bending and lucid.
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), Exucube on Green, 2022, acrylic on linen, 40 x 20 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
Adimensionalities features mostly “exucubes” (named after the artist’s “exuberants”) that illustrate Syruć’s desire to “see mathematics in pure form.” [6] Exucube on Green (2022) shows how the artist can fashion new shapes out of algorithms. An octagon flows into trumpet-like forms with rivers of color that meet at various nodes. Exucube on Red (2022) and Exucube on Yellow (2022), by contrast, keep more right angles intact.
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), Corner Vaults, 2022, acrylic on linen, 50 x 90 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
The most successful works, however, are those that truly generate new forms and create a rhythmic harmony that washes over the senses. The layers of the holographic, cellophane-like bubbles of Flat Inverted Exucube (2022) and Natural Exucube Graph (2021), the biomorphic fibers in Exucubization Dichotomy (2021), the carcinization of Transformed Exucube (2021), and the interdimensional, science fiction-esque Corner Vaults (2022) all hum with their own internal resonance that just feels right. It is impossible to not form associations with known objects when viewing Syruć’s art, but there is enough originality in each work that one still sees light, sound, space, time, color, and mathematics in a uniquely visual form.
Krzysztof Syruć (PROEMBRION), Immense Complexity, 2022, acrylic on linen, 60 x 30 centimeters. Image courtesy of Ryan Joseph Gallery.
But the brilliance in Adimensionalities is that the truth PROEMBRION is after—new perceptions of nature, color, reality, and geometry—does not require understanding the complex processes required to get here. There is a soft-hued sonority in the blues, greens, and purples of Pure Uniform Coloring (2020) that is enhanced only by the gallery it is displayed in. The glitchy forms in Immense Complexity (2022) speak for themselves against the plain, white rectangle of Ryan Joseph Gallery (complete with natural light from the gallery’s skylight). And each work, with visible brushstrokes and ever-changing parameters, naturally fulfills the artist’s desire to add “graffiti to space.” [7]
Be sure to see Krzysztof Syruć’s first mural in the United States, located across the street from Ryan Joseph Gallery on the side of Leevers Locavore at 2630 West 38th Avenue.
Madeleine Boyson is an Editorial Coordinator at DARIA and a Denver-based writer, artist, lecturer, and curator who concentrates on American modernism, poetry, photography, and (dis)ability studies. She holds a B.A. in Art History and History from the University of Denver and volunteers as development director for the arts platform Femme Salée.
[1] “The same painting,” which means work that is composed of invented and known forms and colors. From Krzysztof Syruć’s artist talk at Ryan Joseph Gallery on September 10, 2022.
[2] From the exhibition handout.
[3] From Krzysztof Syruć’s artist talk at Ryan Joseph Gallery on September 10, 2022.
[4] Descriptions of parametricism and parametric architecture are drawn from “What is Parametric Architecture or Parametric Design,” in Architectural Medicine, accessed September 25, 2022: https://architecturalmedicine.com/what-is-parametric-architecture-or-parametric-design/.
[5] A quote by Patrik Schumacher on the work of structural engineer Frei Otto, who utilized parametric methods to generate form. From “What is Parametric Architecture or Parametric Design,” https://architecturalmedicine.com/what-is-parametric-architecture-or-parametric-design/.
[6] From “What is Parametric Architecture or Parametric Design,” https://architecturalmedicine.com/what-is-parametric-architecture-or-parametric-design/.
[7] From the artist’s exhibition statement.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
