All elements of the fairground and circus are wittily combined in Orlik’s exuberant and airy painting Fairground. He creates a scene full of life and verve connecting entertaining components each made up of strange elements which contribute to the joyful scene.

The shapes turn into figures, a carnival of energy and surreal creation, and each animated section interconnects and leads the eye around the canvas in glorious loops and circles. At the top of the canvas, a clown’s unicycle rides along a tightrope made up of a flagpole, with its handlebars and saddle following behind. A sprung jack-in-the-box tumbler guides the eye down the side of the painting to a drum with a face and drumsticks as arms, leading around to a leaping clown dog which is also a table or chair; a woman with a fancy hat appears on the left carrying a tray on which a glass of wine spills, the red stream of liquid merging with Orlik’s exuberant excitations; and a central acrobatic figure forms from a central wall with a window at its centre, and balances a table with draping table-cloth on its feet. In this painting, Orlik’s excitation brushstrokes reflect the buoyant mood so that each ‘space’ between the objects is as vital, cheerful and jaunty as the things themselves.