Three students from Cracow gave themselves a name: “Ładnie” (handsome) as if they were forming a band. The painting of the artistic boy group (along with Maciejowski were Wilhelm Sasnal and Rafal Bujnowski) does look fairly handsome in an off-beat way. In the case of the painting by Marcin Maciejowski, who actually wanted to become a graphic artist and who is also active drawing comics, a playful go-getter attitude with a tendency towards subversion makes itself discernible. Sharpness camouflaged as naivety – the “Kippenberger principle” says hello. People look like dummies with no identity, objects shimmer in aggressive colours. The subjects seem to say, “I could be something completely different”. Maciejowski’s paintings remind one of the discarded art of the 30’s, just as much as the local paintings of socialist realism.

Newspaper and magazine cuttings serve as pattern book. Alongside the sensational reports of catastrophes and portraits of famous artist colleagues such as Picasso or Kokoschka, paintings of floodlit stadiums or everyday scenes with soldiers can be found in the oeuvre. Curiously inexpressive young men in uniform play billiards or meet with music-makers in a rehearsal room. We cannot hear the music, of course, but we intuit that is sounds pretty well-behaved and conventional. Guitarist, keyboards and drummer look at each other like examinees. Perhaps they are practicing a song that they’ve often gotten wrong.

Wolfgang Kos, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)