Edyta Hul

SLAG&RX is pleased to present Density of the Spell, a solo exhibition by Warsaw-based artist Edyta Hul. This marks the artist’s first show in the U.S. Hul often describes her canvases as "inner landscapes" or "fantastic realities," offering a glimpse into the realms she creates. In her exhibition, Density of the Spell, Hul invites us into a mystical domain that straddles the threshold of reality, posing a tantalizing "what if?" Her compositions inhabit the liminal space between our world and another, conjuring abstractions that echo the familiar contours of our existence. Hul's universe, almost tangible in its connection to our reality, envelops us in an air of enigma.

Edyta Hul’s process involves combining oil paint with various industrial enamels, preceded and followed by many layers of primer and varnish to achieve hypnotically results. To where one travels upon viewing, however, barring shifts in color schemes (evoking hyper-real nature, mostly) and complexity of composition, is entirely up to the individual beholder. Light and rich, fierce and supplicant; resistance is pleasantly futile.

Xilitla is a magical little municipality in the San Luis Potosi state in the heart of Mexico. It’s best known amongst clued-in dreamers, seasoned travelers and bohemian artists for its fantastically lush, subtropical rainforest 200 miles above sea-level, which symbiotically engulfs the Edward James Las Pozas Surrealist Garden, a transcendent attraction so named for its numerous “pools,” which are actually diverse, natural bodies of water (hot springs, streams and lakes) which populate the enchanted natural wonderland. Besides funding his Surrealist Garden halfway across the world, James was as a worthy patron to Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, and René Magritte. The influence of these artists and their work can be seen and deeply felt in-situ at Las Pozas, which features diaphanous over 36 surrealist architectural marvels including an outdoor gallery, a winding “stairway to heaven” exposed to the elements, a so-called “terrace of the tigers,” and other confounding structures. At Xilitla, “man,” nature and reality itself dissolve. This is just one word, place, vibe or concept made potently manifest by one painting, one puissant portal by Edyta Hul; Serpentine Sisters, 2024, rendered seductively in a suspiring green chaparral of oil and enamel on canvas.

Primed many times over to create what could be called a lucid base, the medium becomes an amalgamated dreamer, free to explore, to bleed, to discover its own fate, perhaps with a divine push or pull. Much will be evoked, like the aforementioned Xilitla, to taxonomize or geo-allocate the content at play, much like the artist, who, yes, hails from Poland. But what is this nationalistic factoid to sentient, alien, bioluminescent seaweed colonies in the liquid ethane lakes of Titan? A painting, a physical object of some degree of permanence, at least in (im)mortal intention, does the sleek and silent work; a transportive dream synesthesia; a passport to a new dimension or to new, exotic planets dashed with shared terrestrial DNA. Hul’s preternatural landscapes, radiating with organic, multiversal emotions, exist within and beyond our grasp simultaneously.

Do toucans dream? Apparently so! What if Ukraine’s wheat fields were left to their own devices, growing, climbing and unfurling like a revolutionary’s defiantly uncut mane? What if H.R. Giger’s soul dreamt of howling Birds of Paradise while napping in Papua New Guinea? Recall an intoxicated, romantic tumble up winding back-alley steps in Chefchaouen, the “Blue City” of Morocco. Edyta Hul’s work in Density of the Spell compels us to commune with something beyond our current catalogue of experience, something deeper than the earth-bound flesh could comprehend or facilitate, while never divorcing us from a radical sense of universal aliveness.

Kurt McVey