Still life with Bunzlauer Pottery, 80x120 cm, oil on linen, 2020

“Lukas Bury works Still life with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Still life with Bunzlauer Pottery recall the Western tradition of still-life and bring it to a contemporary setting. Still-life was born as a celebration of the pleasures of life, its subjects were fruits, vegetables, flowers and other goods, often belonging to different seasons and of different origins. Still-lives often contain moral messages, such as that of the transience of life: if once fading flowers, rotten fruits and skulls were depicted as a memento mori, nowadays an old package of a very well-known product is more effective as a reminder of the passing time.

Lukas Bury’s work brings together Polish and Icelandic products in his contemporary still-life, reflecting on globalism, the role of products in creating cultural identities, the nature of immigrants as consumers of two cultures.”

Text by Ana Victoria Bruno

Photos: Magda Typiak