Plato’s Cave / It’s whispered that Plato’s allegory of the cave soon inspired a digital composition by Willem Boronski. The work depicts prisoners, shadows, and a glowing fire in abstract forms—symbols of illusion and truth. A spiral-shaped ladder represents the chaotic ascent toward insight, while a burst of color above suggests the blinding light outside the cave. Whispering faces and connecting lines evoke both entrapment and the possibility of awakening—a visual reflection on the contrast between appearance and reality, between captivity and liberation.

Willem Boronski Gallery

Plato's Cave / It's whispered that soon

This painting by Willem Boronski presents a dynamic interplay of fragmentation and construction, with a staircase-like structure at its core. Black and red lines suggest movement and transition, while the rough texture and collage techniques create a layered depth. The staircase appears to be forming and disintegrating simultaneously, evoking tension—is this a path upward, a fall, or an unfinished structure? The red accents heighten the drama and introduce an element of disruption. The composition reflects Boronski’s themes of growth, control, and uncertainty, challenging the viewer to interpret the transition depicted in the work.

Broken Steps, Silent Echoes

Behind-Every-Beautiful-Thing

In Darkness on the Edges of Words, Willem Boronski uses pages from books, selectively obscuring text with ink and paint to explore fragmentation, fading meaning, and emerging interpretations. The black-and-white aesthetic reinforces themes of alienation and mystery, emphasizing language's fragility. Through visual erasure and dynamic video, Boronski challenges viewers to uncover hidden layers and reconsider the transient nature of words and memory.

Darkness on the Edges of Words (edition 10/10)

The painting consists of layered paint and paper, creating a textured, tangible surface. The rough texture enhances depth, reinforcing the impression of an organic world where the woman is situated. The underlying structures resemble a landscape in which her face emerges from the material.

This layering suggests transformation and reconstruction, where the image forms gradually. The black and red lines traversing the face appear both absorbed into and floating above the material, creating movement and interaction between layers. This highlights the depth of the work and suggests the woman is both ensnared and connected within this network of lines and textures.

The white misty environment, shaped by layered paper and paint, gives the image a dreamy, ethereal atmosphere. It implies her presence is not fixed but in continuous transformation, aligning with your themes of fragmentation, connection, and imagination uncovering hidden structures within chaos.

The Lady and the Net of Light

Falling Up the Broken Staircase by Willem Boronski is a dynamic abstract painting that conveys movement and fragmentation. The composition is filled with bold black lines that intersect and overlap, creating a sense of energy and instability. Bright primary colours—red, blue, and yellow—stand against a predominantly white background, while textured layers add depth and complexity. The circular shapes and angular forms appear in motion, reinforcing the paradox the title suggests. The painting evokes struggle, transformation, and the tension between ascent and collapse.

Falling Up the Broken Staircase

*Footsteps on the Ladder of Time* by Willem Boronski is a textured abstract composition that explores themes of ascent, memory, and transformation. A fragmented ladder structure, painted in earthy ochres and deep reds, emerges from the layered white surface, symbolizing a precarious journey through time. The interplay of swirling black lines, geometric shapes, and ghostly human-like forms suggests an ephemeral presence—traces of past movements lingering within an evolving, unstable reality.

Footsteps on the Ladder of Time

This drawing by Willem Boronski on brown paper with water-soluble graphite captures a moment of movement and resistance. The lines suggest a bicycle in motion, facing obstacles that must be overcome. The interplay between wet and dry graphite creates tension—some forms seem to dissolve, while others hold firm. Blue and rust-brown accents enhance the sense of struggle against opposing forces. The brown background adds an earthy, almost timeless quality. The bicycle symbolizes progress but also the challenge of adaptation and perseverance. This aligns with Boronski’s transition, fragmentation, and reconstruction themes, inviting the viewer to create their own narrative about movement and resistance.

Roll With It

I saw the flowers come and go

"She is Buying a Stairway to Heaven", created with acrylic and charcoal, presents an ethereal, airy composition where a fragile, layered staircase emerges. Like traces in the sky, the charcoal remnants reinforce the sense of transience and transition. The red accents subtly contrast with the icy background, suggesting the ascent is a delicate, almost elusive pursuit.

She is Buying a Stairway to Heaven

**I Want to Ride My Bike** is a sketch from Willem Boronski’s *Brown Paper Series*, focusing on movement and resistance. The contours of a bicycle intertwine with abstract forms and lines, merging recognition and fragmentation. Spokes and circles suggest wheels, while blue and red accents add tension. A metal beam with bolts seems to interrupt the dynamic flow—an obstacle or a stabilizing element? The hand shape raises questions: is it reaching for the bike, pushing away, or symbolizing control? The rough, sketch-like technique with water-soluble graphite and pigment enhances the sense of transition and uncertainty. The title suggests freedom and desire, yet the ride is not guaranteed—this drawing explores the tension between progress and disruption, a recurring theme in Boronski’s work.

I want to ride my bike 2

In the Depths of the Mirror

The Flowers Are Dyin’ Like All Things Do by Willem Boronski, created with acrylic and charcoal, captures a melancholic stillness where abstraction and figuration merge. The dominant white and grey tones evoke transience, while expressive black lines suggest skeletal structures dissolving into space. Charcoal streaks, intentionally left visible, resemble aeroplane contrails, adding a fleeting dynamism. Amid the fading forms, subtle green hints emerge—a sign of life within decay. This contrast between disappearance and survival reflects Boronski’s themes of transition and the cycle of existence, inviting the viewer to contemplate impermanence while glimpsing hope in the remnants of colour.

The Flowers Are Dyin’ Like All Things Do

The Princes Kept The View

Amor Fati

I’ve Travelled A Long Road Of Despair

"I'm Not What I Was. Things Aren't What They Were" by Willem Boronski explores transition and layering. Charcoal lines sketch faint figures climbing stairs, their forms barely tangible, caught between fading and emerging.

By scratching through the paint, Boronski reveals hidden layers of colour, creating a sense of depth and uncovering what lies beneath. This technique reinforces the idea of physically and conceptually layering where the past lingers within the present.

The combination of pale blue tones, rough textures, and fragile climbing movements evokes constant change. The title reflects this dynamic: nothing remains as it was, and traces of what once existed are only partially visible. The work invites the viewer to experience the tension between decay and growth, between what is lost and revealed.

I'm not what I was, things aren't what they were

This Is Not Our Fate

This painting by Willem Boronski is a layered, rhythmic composition where movement, fragmentation, and imagination intersect. While seemingly abstract, closer inspection reveals figurative elements—limbs, organic forms, and a staircase structure winding through the image. Bold black charcoal lines guide the eye across a predominantly white background, punctuated by red, yellow, orange, and green bursts. The thick texture adds a physical, almost sculptural quality. The partially visible staircase symbolizes an uncertain climb—an attempt to move forward in a fractured world. Boronski suggests rather than defines, inviting the viewer to find meaning within the poetic chaos.

fleet-footed guides from the underworld

Beyond The Sea – Beyond The Sky

white

yellow

orange

purple

dark blue

green

light blue

brown

black

Acrylic

Aquatint

Canvas

Chalk

Charcoal

Clay

Concrete

Embroidery

Graphite

Gold

Mixed Media

Metal

Oil Paint

Paper

Pastels

Pencil

Pigment

Resin

Tempera

Textile

Watercolor

Collage

Other

Film

Digital

Ceramic

Wire

Wood

Yarn

Stone

Porcelain

Marble

Glass

Plastic

Design

Drawing

Engraving

Etching

Linocut

Lithography

Painting

Prints

Screen Print

Text

Work on paper

Photography

3D Print

Performance

Sculpture

Landscape

Portrait

Very large

Large

Medium

Small

Very Small

Can't remember when I was born And I forgot when I died

In ‘Multitudes: Layers of Reflection’, Willem Boronski guides us through a journey of emotions, ideas, and societal themes that define his work. At the heart of this retrospective is exploring the different 'realities' we navigate daily, symbolized by the staircase — a potent and recurring motif in Boronski’s oeuvre, representing the connection between worlds and realities.  
The staircase symbolises growth, reflection, and the tension between movement and stagnation and connects worlds and realities. From his early paintings to recent sketches and works, this exhibition showcases how Boronski’s use of layering and techniques invites the viewer to look beyond the surface. In this context, the staircase serves as a guiding thread, a metaphor for the personal and collective pursuit of understanding, empathy, and transformation, with the viewer as an active participant in this journey.  
An essential aspect of Boronski’s work is his creative process, evident in the traces of char

Multitudes; Layers of Reflection

Aspire and build