Ryszard Wozniak (b. 1956), Angel, 1985

oil, canvas, 160 x 120 cm, signed and described on the back: 'ANGEL | R. WOŹNIAK 1985| oil 160 x 120'.

Ryszard Wozniak is a thoroughbred painter. His paintings are strong and have a claw, further conquered by provocative concepts. There is a complaint in Poland that young artists, who by virtue of their metric should be rebels, are lukewarm, polite, neutral.
Far more feisty and rebellious can be artists from the "generation of masters," such as Ryszard Wozniak. This painter is still young in his refreshing perversity. He makes great, ironic paintings that are not only meant to look good (although they do), but also to come into confrontation with reality, to throw off balance, to sow inspiring confusion and ferment.



Stach Szabłowski

ORIGIN:
- Private collection, Germany
EXHIBITED:
- What Happens Now in Paradise, solo exhibition, BWA Lublin, 27XI - XII 1985
- "Avanguardia polacca. Esposizione dell'arte indipendente polacca", Centro Direzionale Colleoni, Agrate Brianza, Italy, VI - VII 1987
- "Gruppa" group, Na Ostrowie Gallery, Wrocław, 17 IV - 15 V 1988
- GRUPPA 1982 - 1992, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, 15 XII 92 - 14 II 1993
- Gruppa 1982 - 1992, L. Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz, II - III 1993.

Painter, performer, educator and art theoretician. In 1981 he defended his diploma in the studio of Stefan Gierowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Until 1988, he taught painting technology at his alma mater. In 1982-1992 he was one of the members of the Gruppa art formation, with whose members he later also co-founded the private School of Art in Warsaw. He was active in the KRAAA Association (Collective Movement for Animation of Artistic Activity) and was one of the animators of the PWW Gallery (Free Choice Workshop) in Zielona Gora. Since 1992, he has been running a painting studio at the Art Institute of the University of Zielona Gora, where he works as a professor at UZ. Author of the concept: "The Art of Opposition" and the concept "The Art of Admiration". Together with Marek Sobczyk, he worked on the polychrome in the Neo-Nicene Orthodox Church in Kostomłoty nad Bugiem. His paintings are characterized by a great variety of subject matter and form, from expressive, monochromatic, textural, multiplied works, to paintings with political overtones that use the grotesque and caricature. Together with Gruppa, he has participated in many performances and collective artistic manifestations. He is the author of more than a dozen solo exhibitions and many group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. His paintings are in the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Cracow, the National Gallery of Contemporary Art - Zachęta in Warsaw, the Art Museum in Lodz, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, the L. Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz. Collections of the Egit Foundation, Bank BPH and the ING Polish Art Foundation.