Jan Michal Szewczyk (b. 1944), Sunset, 2000

acrylic, canvas, 18x24 cm

JAN MICHAŁ SZEWCZYK was born in 1944 in Lviv. 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 in 1982 as the last of his students. He practices abstract painting, creating in the current of broadly understood "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."
He is currently conducting an individual project, pioneering in Poland, under the working title "SOCJO-ART," which refers to the concept of "social sculpture" created by JOSEPH BEUYS.