Marek Sobczyk at the Płock Art Gallery | Themerson Festival

Płock Art Gallery invites you to the opening of the exhibition of Marek Sobczyk's painting “What sits in the tips of bananas? [two]”. The vernissage will take place on October 23, 2026 at 6 p.m. The exhibition is part of the 17th Themerson Festival.

Marek Sobczyk is one of the most important representatives of Polish art of the 1980s, a member of Gruppa, painter, graphic designer, art theorist, educator and publisher. The works presented at the exhibition refer to the works of other artists, the history of art and the phenomena of contemporary culture, which Sobczyk includes in the “quotation marks” of his own interpretation.

A significant part of the paintings and objects were created as part of the long-term project “museum” in quotation marks, the first exhibition of which took place in 2006 in Zachęta — the National Gallery of Art. It is not a museum in the traditional sense, but an artistic construction in which Sobczyk simultaneously assumes the role of creator and curator of his own fictional institution.

The artist analyses the artistic language of other artists and proposes authoritative readings of their works. In this way, he conducts a dialogue with their creativity, styles and ways of functioning in culture. The essence of the project is re-interpretation, and Sobczyk's paintings become both autonomous works of painting and a form of critical reflection on art, its history and the mechanisms of its functioning.

The Płock exhibition is another part of the project presented in 2025 during the Themerson Festival at the Płock Centre for Culture and Art.

Marek Sobczyk (born 1955) is a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied in Stefan Gierowski's studio. Winner of the Jan Cybis Award, member of Gruppa — one of the most important artistic formations of Polish art of the 1980s.

Opening: October 23, 2026, 6:00 p.m. Exhibition: October 24 — November 15, 2026 Venue: Płocka Galeria Sztuki, ul. Sienkiewicza 36 Curator: Jacek Markiewicz Co-organizer: Płock Centre for Culture and Art named after Francis and Stefan Themerson