Rafał Zajko is a polish artist based in London, UK. His work deals with issues around the industrial past exploring its environmental impact in relation to working-class heritage and queer identities. His sculptural practice incorporates diverse materials and processes, including ceramic, ventilation systems, prosthetics, and performance.
Slot comprises of a series of new sculptures and mural works commissioned by Abingdon Studios, establishing the artists first solo presentation up t’north. Zajko offers an aesthetic becoming of Blackpool as a past, present and future pleasure palace and destination historically rich in notions of progress and innovation.
Influences within the works for Abingdon Studios, Blackpool lay with body horror genre director, Cronenberg; Technological Reliquaries (‘meat pieces’) by artist Paul Thek and the interdependence between body and screen defining aspects of lived reality, found in works by Tishan Hsu. The exhibition sought to explore the dichotomies between pleasure and escapism, intertwined fragility and strength of bodies and machines. Are we entertained? are we OK?
Biography
Rafał Zajko (b. 1988, Białystok, Poland) lives and works in London, UK. He holds an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London, UK. Recent solo exhibitions include “Song to the Siren” at Cooke Latham Gallery (2022) Amber Waves at Public Gallery (2021), Resuscitation, Castor Projects, London, UK (2020); We Were Here/My Tu Bylismy, Galeria Im. Slendzinskich, Białystok, Poland (2019); Unputdownable, White Cubicle, London (2018). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including New Contemporaries 2021 and shows at X Museum, Beijing, China (2020); TJ Boulting, London, UK (2020); Bold Tendencies, London, UK (2020); Goswell Rd, Paris, France (2019); Ashes/Ashes, New York, USA (2019); EXILE, Vienna, Austria (2019); Vitrine, Basel, Switzerland (2019); Litost, Prague, Czech Republic (2018); Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK (2016) and Whitechapel Gallery Open (2022).
The exhibition is accompanied by a short text written by Sam Moore. PDF download below.
