Ghosts in the Wall

Najda in Ghosts in the Wall: a series of paintings by Stephen Najda



The art of Stephen Najda crosses many boundaries, over a wide spectrum of subjects, and a multitude of techniques. A complex individual with a deep curiosity and an extraordinary fertile mind that crosses a huge range of subjects that coalesce into art in an attempt to articulate the known fundamental interactions of the universe and forms of matter. Often called Renaissance man, Najda is a precociously talented and prolific artist bringing a multidisciplinary background in science and art, mixed with an insatiable appetite for adventure and travel. Stylistically placed between Matisse, Picasso and de Kooning, Najda features expressionistic figures representing the primitive self in big, bold, hugely imaginative paintings.



'Ghosts in the Wall' was painted by Najda 'en plein air' in an old ruined sanatorium where the Nazi's committed atrocities in eastern Poland. The painting is done with large gestural brushstrokes of abstract expressionism, improvised by fingers, paint applied straight from the tube, marked with brick from the sanatorium to create a smeared, smudged, raw physicality, resembling a kind of organised chaos. This is a painting that comes from the deep as Najda absorbs the history of the location, re-enacting the scene of insanity on canvas. This is one of Najda's most intense works. It's a primordial experience - think of Francisco Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, Francis Bacon, or Zdzislaw Beksiński.