For those of us who may not understand the thought and inspiration that help create a piece of art, no worries. The artwork of Rafal Olbinski seems like a trip with Alice into the magical Wonderland. Pictures of a Roman soldier leaping over a scary mountain cliff on top of a “slinky” horse and a woman’s head covered in sets of wings like hair flying through the sky look as if they are still images from a person’s dreams.

These pieces of art may represent something different to each individual person, but to Rafal Olbinski this art symbolizes "New Dreams of Old Values."

This is the current exhibit that is being showcased at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art now through Feb. 28.

Rafal Olbinksi was born in Poland in 1945 and is now living in New York. Olbinski is a noted painter, printmaker and illustrator and is extensively known as a contemporary surrealist artist. Although this categorization doesn’t fully describe Olbinski’s distinctive art.

Upon seeing his artwork, Olbinski likes to incorporate surprise and unexpected coincidences. For example an acrylic painting of three flags, each represents a different ethnicity and each portraying a different facial feature. The piece is titled "Confrontation of Similarities," showing that we all have two eyes and a pair of lips, they might be a different color or shape, but each feature is similar.

Andrew Henley, Education Curator for the museum, described Olbinski’s niche as being able to combine “a large amount of information into a quick burst of visual imagery.”

"New Dreams of Old Values" builds on a series of paintings that were specially made by the German magazine "Stern." The exhibition at the JCSM features Olbinski’s recent reflections on the subjects of ethics and morality in the modern world. The exhibit includes many acrylic and oil paintings along with numerous posters designed for operas, theater and musical shows.

“He is certainly well-known in publishing, newspapers, and the opera world creating set designs. So this is an interesting combination of a current working artist in a different space than he’s used to working in,” said Henley, on how this exhibition is different from others Olbinksi has done.

Olbinski studied architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology in Poland but immigrated to the United States in 1981 and established himself as an outstanding painter, illustrator and designer. Olbinski started in the commercial end of art making movie posters and magazine covers by using visual imagery but still tying in abstract story lines.

Olbinski has had his art appear in has appeared in publications such as New York Times, Newsweek and even Time magazine. He has created numerous poster illustrations for music festivals, opera productions and theatre. In addition to these, Olbinski continues to produce several paintings and murals and has held more than 30 one-man shows in six different countries. His paintings can be seen in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Library of Congress. Olbinski has also acquired more than 150 awards for his work in the United States, England, France and Italy.


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