Artists of the Gallery Art: Mikołaj Kasprzyk

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• Mikołaj Kasprzyk

  Born in Warsaw in 1953. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Graduated in 1977 under tutorage of prof Jacek Sieniecki. In 1977-1989 worked as a teaching assistant and lecturer at the Faculty of Painting at his alma mater. In 2001 awarded the Prize for Best Painting of the Year by a monthly magazine Art & Business.

• The simple representational style of Kasprzyk’s paintings draws more on the Italian Quattrocento than on current contemporary realism, and any resemblance to surrealism – he assures us – is purely coincidental and superficial. As well as being an ironic observer of daily life and interpersonal relationships, he is the author of some of the most poetic paintings created today. He paints his characters based on the photographic images he takes of himself, together with his wife, Bogna. He places these characters in imagined landscapes performing roles in make believe scenarios as duelling couples, dancers, musicians, or jugglers. The characters are often repeated across an image and shown in consecutive stages of movement.