Julian Baslyk was born and raised in Montreal, Canada, and he began to create abstract, colorful artworks at a young age. Julian has received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Concordia University. He has mainly worked on painting and drawing but has also experimented with intaglio printmaking, sculpture, and digital. He has had 7 solo exhibitions and taken part in many group shows at various locations in Montreal, art galleries, coffee shops, auctions, and art fairs. He has also taken part in art publications and magazines, and in 2020 illustrated a textbook on patient partnership for the Université de Montréal, and gave a presentation on his art and poetry for the NDG council for arts in 2019. He is currently working on a novel and considers his artwork and creative writing to correlate and have synergy, each one complimenting the other, he interprets artistic experience through it.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Julian Baslyk deals with reality and the abstract, combining a set of shapes, forms and colours he creates psychedelic scenes that evoke thought, feeling, and wonder. J. Baslyk adds dimensions, realms, and abstract perceptions with components that exist in his artistic universe. A universal objective reality presents itself alongside the artist's subjective aesthetical delights and wishes. Julian creates what he calls ‘space scapes’ whereas bodies are presented with abstract aesthetics, motions, shapes, and colours. The universe is pondered upon, and altered dimensions and depths are realized as the observer is taken into another realm whereas human perception is altered and outer dimensions experienced.

Julian’s art speaks of the consciousness, both of the artist and of the viewer, whereas the mind chooses what it sees, as the mind depicts what is shown. The artwork touches upon a psychological aspect and challenges the mind of the viewer to comprehend it which allows for a higher state. There is both the natural and the unnatural in his artwork, and this binds together to create beautiful artwork with movement, motion, and structure. Julian wants to press the issue of how the psyche is altered when looking at an artwork. Some questions Julian likes to ask are, how does the artwork engage with the consciousness? How does the artwork engage with the subconscious? How can one understand better the subconscious and the consciousness through artwork, both of the artist and the viewer? And, how does this relate to the universe around us?

Baslyk has a unique self-taught process to create his paintings, and this process dictates the structure, form, and abstract qualities. As he searches for his own artistic and self-improvement, he strives for the relationship between beautiful forms, colour, composition, and depth. For Julian, every painting is a predecessor to the next, whereas a continual flow and evolution of style are important. Each painting is different yet retains similar aesthetical compounds flowing through space while transforming the psyche of the viewer and delivering the psyche of the artist.