Stanislaw Trzebinski

The Big Blue Funk

Description/

Kenyan-born artist Stanislaw Trzebinski creates fantastical-sculptural works that explore man’s tenuous relationship with the natural world. Primarily self-taught, Trzebinski has developed an intimate relationship with bronze and its unique material processes. The Big Blue Funk is a new work made by the artist for his 2022 solo show, Solastalgia. This standing light seemingly unfurls from the earth, its bronze tendril holding a luminous yellow hand-blown glass bulb. The work’s organic form reimagines a future evolution of coral. Trzebinski collaborated with specialist glass studio Kitengela Glass, based in his native Kenya, to make the unique handmade blubs, marking his first collaborative venture into glassblowing. While traditional bronze patinas result in a muted range of browns, greens and greys, the explorative use of patina tints has allowed the artist to develop a hallucinogenic palette of metallic green and vivid aquamarine.

Materials: Bronze, hand-blown glass, electrical components
Variable Edition 2 of 4 + 1 AP

Stanislaw Trzebinski

designer

"Kenyan artist Stanislaw Trzebinski creates fantastical-sculptural works that explore human relationships with the natural world. Working primarily in bronze, his collectible furniture and sculpture express this intimate connection with nature, and in particular his fascination with marine life.

Born in 1992 and raised in Mombasa, Trzebinski spent his childhood escaping the bustle of Nairobi to explore the wilderness of the Rift Valley and the East African coast. Immersed as much in its rich cultural heritage of Arabic, African and European influences as in the beauty of its biodiversity, he learnt to speak fluent Kiswahili and track animals. As a young boy, apart from tending to his menagerie of 70 animals, he spent summers diving off the tropical waters of Africa’s East coast, famous for its mangroves, coral reefs and marine life.

He briefly attended the Pratt Institute in New York, where he came to the realisation that his creativity was intimately connected to Africa, its nature and peoples. He moved to Cape Town in 2012 to apprentice in sculpture and bronze casting at Bronze Age Foundry under the guidance of Otto du Plessis. He continues to live and work in Cape Town. Largely self-taught, Trzebinski uses both the lost-wax method and technologically driven techniques to create evocative bronze sculptures and artworks.

Trzebinski has exhibited his work widely in South Africa, including two solos with Southern Guild: In the Absence of Light (2019) and Solastalgia (2022). Southern Guild has presented his work at Christie’s First Open Auction in London, and at fairs including Design Miami , PAD London, and Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
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