Roman Klonek: Imaginary Friends

A doglike creature painted in strange colours gazes at us attentively. Is this the “Imaginary Friend”? In the background a kind of volcano. In the foreground a strange and lonely Eskimo drifts “Back to Sapporo” on an ice floe. In “Friendly Radar”, a kind of dog with supersonic ears runs through an area full of living beings. Known applies to unknown. We believe we have seen it all before. We know these beings from fantastic novels and adventurous picture stories, from our dreams and our fears. But still these images are new to us, new, mysterious and refreshing.

Now Roman Klonek and his “Imaginary Friends” are visiting Hong Kong. The artist born in Katowice in Poland has a spot for old-fashioned cartoons and modern block printing styles. In the 1990s he studied graphic arts in Düsseldorf and discovered a passion for woodcut. For 15 years now, the artist who works together with friends in a studio in Düsseldorf has been doing posters with a wide range of whimsical creatures, mostly half animal/ half human, preferential in awkward situations. It is a bizarre balancing act between propaganda, folklore and pop.

In this exhibition “Imaginary Friends” – a collaboration between Goethe-Institut Hongkong and the School of Creative Media (SCM), City University of Hong Kong – Roman Klonek will present a selection of his newest woodcuts.