In the Absence of Light

For his first solo show with Southern Guild, Kenyan artist Stanislaw Trzebinski creates an immersive collection of functional bronze sculptures inspired by his lifelong fascination with the ocean.

Trzebinski grew up in Nairobi, Kenya in a richly creative household filled with paintings by his late father – accomplished artist Tonio Trzebinski – artworks by close friends such as neighbour Peter Beard, countless books on art and design, and visceral interiors created by his fashion-designer mother, Anna Trzebinski. Though they lived in the city, the pull of the ocean was ever-present. His father was an avid surfer and fisherman, and weekends were spent together free-diving, fishing and camping in Kenya's outdoors – inspiring a reverence for nature that has stayed with the artist ever since.

“As a toddler and a small boy I was obsessed with fish. I even dragged my dad’s catch into my cot one day and had a nap with it,” he remembers. “On the East African coast I waded through rock pools at low tide on the exposed reefs off Mombasa, catching reef fish with nets and on a hand line for my home aquarium while my father surfed.”

“We know so little about our oceans, yet we are destroying them at such a fast rate. We don’t even know what we’re losing,” says Trzebinski. It is that sense of the unknown, the unexplored parts of the ocean and as-yet-undiscovered life forms, that his sculptures beckon to. Light is a recurring theme in the collection and many of the pieces include small LEDs that create the effect of bioluminescence.

In the Absence of Light continues the exploration of Trzebinski’s Extra-Terrestrial series from 2018, enigmatic sculptural works that appear ancient and weathered even as they sprout new tendrils of life. Reminiscent of diverse organic forms such as coral, fungi and stalactites, the pieces seem to have grown biologically. Like many of his other works, they are emblazoned with the snaky, winding marks of Turing patterns, which model organic patterning in nature such as stripes and spots.

A percentage of the proceeds from sales support Local Ocean Conservation, a Kenyan not-for-profit organisation that works to protect the country’s marine environment through ocean conservation, education and outreach programmes.