Two Lights and the Sun 

Curator: Welcome. This is Iwo Zaniewski's painting, "Two Lights and the Sun." Zaniewski works primarily with acrylic paint, often producing striking, semi-abstracted landscapes. Editor: It’s so pared-down, isn’t it? The simplification is striking; shapes reduced to near-geometric forms, colours flatly applied. A domestic space almost entirely distilled into blocks of colour and stark contrasts. I find it strangely unsettling. Curator: Unsettling in what way? The use of light and shadow carries substantial psychological weight here. The viewer’s eye is drawn immediately to the bold contrast of interior and exterior. The warm, domestic lighting on the left opposes the cooler daylight streaming through the window on the right. This juxtaposition symbolizes perhaps, a tension between the inner life and the outer world. Editor: Interesting take, but I immediately focus on the shapes themselves, like that unexpected trapezoid that becomes a lampshade. It’s not naturalistic—it’s more about exploring the formal language of painting. The colour, especially, is incredibly considered. The dark tones, the earthy shades are set off beautifully by those jolts of brilliant yellow, blue and that hot reddish orange. Curator: Absolutely. It’s important to consider the symbolism of colours and their effect on the psyche. Red is often associated with passion and energy; blue with calmness. Here, the interior world, represented by red, perhaps hints at the activity and introspection contained within, while the expansive blue represents openness to new ideas and exploration. What’s particularly resonant is the shadow that extends into the outside view and then back toward the center. Editor: You're right, and what you bring up makes me focus on this interplay of light and shadow and this manipulation of shapes. I think it asks us to engage with how colour affects form. Ultimately it becomes less about ‘two lights and a sun’ and more about how shape, texture and composition create tension within the overall image. Curator: A very valid point. Thank you. The painting acts as a visual meditation on our relationship to light and to space, both within us and around us. Editor: Agreed. It provides a unique exercise in seeing the interplay between domestic tranquility and unsettling fragmentation.