Roman Klonek - Untamed Supporters
We have been representing printmaker Roman Klonick in the UK for a number of years and are delighted to be bringing a solo show of 70 beautifully bold and colourful woodcuts, spanning more than a decade, to Atelier Beside the Sea this Spring.
Born in Kattowitz, Poland, in the 90s Roman moved to Düsseldorf, Germany, where he studied Graphic Arts and discovered a passion for woodcuts. More than 20 years on, he still shares a studio with friends in the German city, from where he creates illustrations and prints which are instantly recognisable and distinctively his own. They typically feature a wide range of whimsical creatures accompanied by typographic elements of Cyrillic and Asian characters in a style that has been described as a ‘bizarre balancing act between propaganda, folklore and pop’.
There is an unmistakable Central European/Soviet cartoon influence in Roman’s earlier works, with more recent travels to Japan injecting Asian pop and US comic culture references. Klonek's colourful and catchy work appears in print, on magazine covers, as murals, on skateboards, on packaging, and as art toys.
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A prolific doodler, Roman’s compositions start as infinite and intersecting marks in his multitude of sketchbooks, evolving into individual elements and characters to be woven into fantastic scenes. The mirror image of these is transferred onto a single wood block, at which point the carving can begin. Roman uses the ‘lost cut’ technique, which means that all colors are printed with just one plate. As soon as the first color is on the paper, all those areas that should remain on the picture are carved away, and this process is repeated until the final color is the only relief left on the plate, with all other areas literally ‘lost’. Confused? Watch Roman demonstrate this fascinating (and risky!) process himself in this short video.
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