Dariusz Works Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom

• 
• 
• 

  Back to profiles Invite to apply

I’m a multidisciplinary artist based in Scotland, working across printmaking, painting, mixed media, and digital art. My practice is rooted in curiosity—an ongoing exploration of time, space, and the creative process to uncover answers to questions I’m still learning how to ask.

For me, the act of creating is a feedback loop: discovery, reflection, growth. It mirrors life’s search for meaning, where the journey often matters more than the destination. Much of my work reflects the duality of my experience—shaped by the world I was born into and the one I choose to inhabit (lucky for me, so far, it’s been my choice). Growing up in a country with a complex and turbulent history, I absorbed a sense of longing that was as much about the future as it was about the past. Nostalgia, for me, isn’t about wanting to go back; it’s about wrestling with history’s weight and how it lingers in the present. Scotland, with its layered landscapes and cultural echoes, has become the canvas where I unpack these ideas, its histories resonating with my own.

Central to my work is an exploration of language—not just in words, but in its visual and synthetic forms. Language, for me, is both a tool and a medium: a way to encode and decode meaning. The spoken and written words of my upbringing carried cultural memory, shaping how I understood the world and its stories. Translating these narratives into visual languages—through composition, texture, and colour—helps me articulate what words often can’t. Digital media and technology expand this dialogue, creating new ways to engage with memory, space, and identity.

My approach to nostalgia is influenced by Svetlana Boym’s distinction between restorative and reflective nostalgia. Restorative nostalgia seeks to rebuild an idealised past, while reflective nostalgia accepts history’s contradictions and its impossibility of return. I lean into the latter. It allows me to question how language—whether spoken, visual, or digital—shapes memory and meaning, bridging past and present.

I sometimes return to childhood memories of adults reminiscing about the ‘good old days,’ their words tinted by a longing I couldn’t reconcile with the complexity and my perceived injustice I saw around me. My work revisits these narratives—not to relive them, but to reimagine them through visual language. I’m definitely not stuck in the past - dwelling on it too much is not my current priority. I’m keeping a close watch on what’s happening around near and far. This helps me revisit my understanding and shapes my learning, unlearning, and relearning when it’s necessary.

My current home, Scotland, with the rich cultural tapestry, provides a vivid backdrop, where natural landscapes and human stories weave together like threads, creating patterns that shift with time and perspective. Naturally, this isn’t exclusive to Scotland. I’m always on the lookout for this richness wherever I am. The unfamiliarity of a new language and culture can be challenging at first, yet embracing new things allows for fresh ways of seeing and understanding.

I’m also deeply interested in the journeys of others—the stories that shape them, the memories they hold, and the ones they are still building. Our pasts and futures, intertwined with the places and languages we inhabit, carry a wealth of meaning waiting to be explored. Through my art, I hope to create space for these reflections, inviting others to see their own experiences through new lenses.

My process often feels like an autoethnography project — a personal excavation through the layers of language, memory, and identity. Each piece becomes a reflection of my lived experience as I navigate the spaces where spoken, visual, and synthetic languages intersect. It’s in these intersections that I uncover what lies beneath, discarding what no longer serves and creating space for new insights to take root.

Through my work, I invite viewers into this process—not to find definitive answers, but to reflect on their own languages of memory, place, and identity. This doesn't stop me from positioning myself as the viewer of my work. This is essential to how I experience and create. Together, we can explore the stories that shape us and imagine who we might yet become.