The First Sky-High Art Exhibition in Europe Unveiled on the Structure of The Warsaw HUB

An extraordinary installation has been put on the structure of The Warsaw HUB, a skyscrapers complex being built in the centre of Warsaw. It is a large-format painting by Łukasz Stokowski, a Polish abstractionist. This is the first such art exhibition in Europe.

Sixty-five metres above the ground, on large-format boards installed on the structure of the skyscraper being built in Warsaw’s Wola district, an abstract work of art by reputed artist Łukasz Stokowski has been hung. The installation has been created as a Sky-High Art Gallery as part of HUB Gallery, i.e. the new cultural initiative by the developer Ghelamco Poland. As the building rises to reach its ultimate height of 130, the painting will go up, becoming visible from long distances and different parts of the city. It is the first such project in Europe.

“Integrating our projects with the city fabric and using their potential to implement important social and artistic initiatives has always been one of Ghelamco’s priorities. HUB Gallery fits in well with our ambitious goal to promote art available for all and not closed within the walls of traditional galleries or museums. We are happy that as part of this unique project we can show a painting by Łukasz Stokowski, one of the most interesting young Polish artists,” says Jarosław Zagórski, Commercial and Business Development Director, Ghelamco Poland.

Art inspired by the city

The scale of the spectacular installation, which covers almost 1800 sq m, symbolizes the expanding and vibrant city fabric. Lights, neons and building shapes can be noticed in it. Stokowski purposefully deforms and blurs the big-city landscape in his own unique way, calling it “antifigurative aesthetics”.

“From the very beginning, as soon as I make the initial sketch, I try to blur the shapes so as not to present anything figurative. It has become my obsession! The more I blur and deform the shapes familiar to the human eye, the more the canvas is filled with paint stains, forming a picture. The whole process is both complicated and fascinating,” says Łukasz Stokowski, artist, author of the Sky-High Art Gallery installation on The Warsaw HUB.

Before the work was hung on the skyscraper’s structure, the artist had painted two pictures, which were then digitized and applied to large-format boards. The original paintings on the canvas will be initially displayed in Warsaw Spire’s lobby to eventually find their place in The Warsaw HUB.

Łukasz Stokowski is an abstractionist painter, who gets his inspiration from the surrounding world and architecture as well as Bauhaus’ heritage and the New York school of abstract expressionism. He consciously tries to combine high art and applied art.

Art as an integral part of the city fabric

Ghelamco has engaged in promoting art and artistic initiatives in public space for years. The developer established Fundacja Sztuka w Mieście (Art in the City Foundation), which promotes artistic initiatives, organises cultural events, and activates the local community.

Since May 2016 Warsaw residents have been able to visit Art Walk on Plac Europejski (European Square), i.e. an outdoor art gallery whose special design enables year-round display of paintings, sculptures and art installations. The exhibition is changed annually and both well-known artists with many achievements as well as beginner but promising ones are invited to cooperate. So far the Foundation, together with Ghelamco, has organised 10 exhibitions in Art Walk, in which more than 60 artists have taken part, including Rafał Olbiński, Chris Hernandez or Katarzyna Przezwańska.

In addition, the organisation has held 5 major design workshops, in which more than 120 people (pupils, students, designers) have taken part, and engages in other cultural initiatives by supporting, among others, the publication of Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki (Architecture and Town Planning Quarterly) of Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

Business centre of Warsaw

The Warsaw HUB, Ghelamco Poland’s flagship project, is being built in Warsaw’s business centre, right next to Rondo Daszyńskiego. It will consist of three skyscrapers: the 86-metre hotel building and two 130-metre office towers, which will be joined by a five-storey foundation along Towarowa street. The 113,000 sq m of space will host, among others: state-of-the-art office space, two hotels, a conference centre, a supermarket, a convenience centre, coworking space, a fitness centre, and The Heart Warsaw centre of cooperation between corporations and start-ups.

Employees of the business complex will be able to access the buildings using a smartphone application or enter the parking lot via a license plate recognition system, whereas electric car owners will have access to charging stations. The building will also provide a separate indoor parking lot with 420 spaces for cyclists including locker rooms and showers.