Grzegorz Stec (b. 1955), Matzeva, 2014

oil, panel, 50 x 50 cm, signed at the bottom: 'Grzegorz Stec 2014'
Painter, printmaker, poet, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 1981. He has had over 70 solo exhibitions in major galleries in Poland and abroad. For a number of years (1995-2009) he exhibited in the USA (Chicago and New York). He also had individual exhibitions at Polish diplomatic missions, including the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland and the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the Polish Institute in Leipzig, the Abakus Gallery in Berlin in cooperation with the Polish Embassy in Berlin and the Polish Institute. About the artist's work TVP made a film "I am tormented by the smell of black" (1991, directed by Cezary Nowicki). The artist's paintings are in museums and private collections in Poland, the USA, Canada, Austria, Germany, Sweden and France. In 2019. Grzegorz Stec celebrated the 40th anniversary of his work. On this occasion, a 320-page bilingual retrospective album "Grzegorz Stec. Paintings - Paintings", Krakow 2019.The artist occupies a separate place in contemporary art. He represents the type of visionary and dramatic art, dealing with universal themes, and at the same time diagnosing contemporary reality. He is most interested in the crowd - a huddled, deformed mass, plagued by madness and trauma, as well as the individual human being, shown as a mutilated head-mask, an expression of mental states. He has developed his own painting technique, based in the first phase on spontaneous action and later on laborious refinement of details. He is also the creator of unique black oil paintings, in which light plays the most important role. Called by critics a master of light and an excellent colorist. EXHIBITED:
- solo exhibition, Center for Jewish Culture in Krakow, 2014
- solo exhibition, Abakus Gallery in Berlin, 2015
- solo exhibition, Pryzmat ZPAP Gallery in Krakow, 2019
- individual exhibition, Bator Art Gallery in Szczyrk, 2019
- solo exhibition, Witkacy Theater Gallery in Zakopane, 2020
LITERATURE:
Grzegorz Stec. Painting, Cracow 2019, p. 200