acrylic on canvas and video projection

165 x 230 cm

To fully understand the visual realms of Dominik Lejman, it is important to know that his artworks can never be reduced neither to their physical form nor to the traditional understanding of the used media. Since his graduation as a painter from the Royal College of Art London, in 1995, Lejman has been exploring for the most significant way to articulate his critical visions. Stimulated by the boundaries of painting, Lejman has combined the surface of painting with layers of video projections for over two decades. Since then, he has been conceptually experimenting with painting and time-based media – leading to a kaleidoscope of different, often socially engaged narratives that enfold both in space and time.

acrylic on canvas and video projection

185 x 135 cm

For the project titled Reenactment, Lejman started a collaboration with the British artist Bianca O’Brien. Initially created as part of the Madnicity-Pavillion (during the Biennale di Venezia) in 2022, the series displays a constructive discourse on stereotypes and common beliefs about mental disorders. Here, Lejman paired up his paintings with ephemeral ghostly scenes of a female figure, based both on religious representation in art history and photographic archives of the former mental hospital at San Servolo. The body is being presented as an object, directed frontally by a pair of hands, wrapped in a white cloth that seems to represent both a straightjacket, and a cloth taken directly from the Baroque tenebristic painting. The ephemeral projection emphasizes the innovative hybrid form of Lejman’s works – stressing the absence of representation. Leaving behind the canvas to be looked at, 'the projected absence' makes it evident that the painting is far more than just the projection surface. 

Acrylicon canvas and video projection

185 x 210 cm

In recent years, Lejman has often engaged in wider collaborations with other artists. These projects require meticulous preparation as well as an immense amount of respect and trust for one another. Works such as Partition (with Maria Colusi), testify the results of fruitful artistic exchanges. The created harmonic symbiosis generates the full meaning of the artwork, for painting to serve as the stage, for the video projection to create a palimpsest of the missing performance.