Jan Michal Szewczyk (born 1944), Baltic Sea

acrylic, cardboard, 50x60 cm

signed in pencil on the obverse p. d. with bound monogram: JMSZ / 92
JAN MICHAŁ SZEWCZYK was born in Lviv in 1944. He studied art in Gdansk at the State Higher School of Fine Arts, the predecessor of the current Academy of Fine Arts. He received a diploma in painting in the studio of Professor Władysław Jackiewicz (1924-2016) in 1982 as the last of his students. He practices abstract painting, creating in the trend of broadly defined "poetic abstraction," using acrylic technique with particular fondness. Although he also does not shy away from excursions into areas of expression with characteristics of a realistic message.

A breakthrough for him was a trip to Australia, where he came into contact with the art of the Aborigines for the first time. This meeting resulted in a significant expansion of his color palette and, in particular, initiated a period of fascination with large-scale sculpture, derived directly from the forms typical of the art of the original Australian tribes. The artist writes about the artistic transformation that occurred at that time, implying his further creative search as follows:

"The abstract form of "TOTEM" that I have adopted for the realization of my aesthetic issues, after several trips to Australia, allows me to more strongly convey the spiritual values associated with the identity of color and form."

Solo exhibitions at home and abroad: Austria, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, among others. Artistic travels: Australia, Taiwan. In 1996-1999 Member of the Main Revision Committee of ZPAP in Warsaw. Since 2001. President of ZPAP Szczecin District. Curator of the biennials of the Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting in Szczecin in 1996, 2002, 2004. Member of the Association Zachęta of Contemporary Art in Szczecin and the Polish-Swedish Association. Currently a lecturer at the University of the Third Age, and previously at the faculty of painting at the West Pomeranian University of Technology, Faculty of Construction and Architecture in Szczecin.