Oliver Bak (*1992) has become known for his historically inspired, vibrant painterly topographies, which stem from a deep engagement with the materials, procedures and influences of painting. His meticulous practice that foregrounds texture and an original use of color produces multilayered surfaces brimming with art historical and literary references. On Bak’s canvases, his aptitude for invocations of the medium’s history entwines with the themes, images and atmosphere of avant-garde poetry and myths of decadence and destruction. Interested in how the stories that have defined collective imagination develop, he delves into one particular narrative at a time, which provides the starting point for each of his bodies of work.
Photo: Alicja Kielan
FOCUS
Group Exhibition with Oliver Bak, Anne Imhof, and Barbara Kruger
Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław
Through May 3, 2026
FOCUS is an exhibition presenting selected works recently acquired for the collection of Sylwia and Piotr Krupa, the majority of which were created over the past few years. The exhibition concentrates on art that is acutely contemporary—produced here and now, in a world that is constantly accelerating, transforming, and repeatedly eluding clear-cut diagnoses. The contemporary art scene unfolds along multiple trajectories, and the richness of its themes and practices makes it impossible to identify a single, shared current.
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