Karol Palczak – exhibition “Today” at Kunsthalle Zürich

Kunsthalle Zürich is hosting the first international solo exhibition of Karol Palczak, a Polish contemporary realist painter. The exhibition “Today” presents works inspired by the landscape of his hometown of Krzywcza and everyday life in the Podkarpacie region. Burning trees, quiet rivers and men with inner tubes against the backdrop of mountain landscapes will be on display in Switzerland from 27 September 2025 to 18 January 2026. The exhibition has been created with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. 

Podkarpacie through the eyes of a painter – landscape, people, and memory at the exhibition in Switzerland 

“Today” at Kunsthalle Zürich is the first solo exhibition by Polish artist Karol Palczak abroad. The exposition presents a new series of oil paintings on aluminium and marble. Thematically, the works are rooted in the landscape of Krzywcza – the artist’s home village in south-eastern Poland. Still lifes, landscapes and scenes with recurring motifs reveal often overlooked details of life under economic crisis, in an increasingly depopulated and militarised borderland. As both a witness and participant in this story, Palczak creates paintings that explore the relationship between modernity and landscape with extraordinary sensitivity and attentiveness. 

The title of the exhibition, “Today”, reflects the central role of time in various aspects of Palczak’s work. The river, the landscape and its inhabitants are not only fragments of reality captured on canvas, but also silent witnesses to the scenes he records. Improvised, sometimes chaotic video footage is an integral part of the creative process, allowing the artist to explore the movements of fire, smoke and water, which he later translates into the language of painting. The films and paintings document an ambiguous reality, telling a moving story of alienation and boredom in a region of mountains and valleys – once home to Jewish, Orthodox, and Catholic communities, today marked by emptiness and stagnation. In Palczak’s works, as in Krzywcza itself, time seems to stand still, while motifs recur again and again until they are both technically and emotionally exhausted. Among these is the almost photorealistic imagery of the River San, which flows through the village and continues to shape the region politically and culturally. 

Video, painting and multiple media – Karol Palczak’s creative process 

The exhibition centres on three large-scale paintings depicting a burning willow tree on the banks of the River San – with trees consumed by fire serving as one of the recurring motifs in Palczak’s oeuvre. Most themes are drawn from photographs or video stills, yet the artist often introduces fictional elements such as smoke or fire. He also incorporates local customs and rituals: for instance, the partial burning of trees – a cleansing practice intended to ensure healthy growth in spring. Another example is the burning of straw effigies symbolising the hardships of winter – reimagined in a new series of increasingly abstract paintings – which refers to a Slavic spring ritual still observed, especially in rural areas. These staged scenes, often marked by violence and transgression, are realised with the participation of friends and neighbours – a community that not only recurs in Palczak’s work but also directly experiences the presence of military forces that dominate the region. 

Another part of the exhibition features three portraits of young men in shades of grey, whose absurd, seemingly pointless actions are depicted with both tenderness and immediacy. Posing with large lorry tyre inner tubes in the artist’s backyard, the half-naked figures avert their gaze from the viewer, focusing instead on the black objects that could serve as inflatable rings for swimming in the river. A still life painted on marble, depicting eels – mysterious creatures that also inhabit the River San – echoes the smooth surfaces and shapes of the rubber rings. It reflects a shared local experience. Meanwhile, the paintings on thin metal sheets reference the Sarmatian tradition of coffin portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries, bearing witness to existential anxiety and the need to express it. 

Karol Palczak’s first solo exhibition abroad 

The exhibition is curated by Fanny Hauser, director of Kunsthalle Zürich, who oversees the artistic project that has turned Krzywcza, a village in the Podkarpacie region, into the focus of a major exhibition at this prestigious gallery in north-eastern Switzerland. Kunsthalle Zürich, the host of the exhibition, has been presenting contemporary art and ideas of international significance for 40 years, consistently engaging with current contexts. Each exhibition is conceived as an experiment. The Löwenbräukunst complex serves as a local meeting place of international relevance. Kunsthalle continually redefines art, its audience, and itself. 

Karol Palczak – exhibition “Today” at Kunsthalle Zürich