Bartosz Kokosiński

Bartosz Kokosiński (b. 1984 in Siewierz) is a painter and author of objects, installations and video works. In 2009 he completed the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, defending his diploma in the studio of Andrzej Bednarczyk and Witold Stelmachniewicz. His work is a consistent reflection on the phenomenon of the image - its status, meaning and limits.

Already during his studies, in the cycle „Diseases of Painting”, he broke with the thinking of the picture as mere paintwork, treating it as a three-dimensional, complex object - he made use of technological errors, badly primed grounds and flaking paint. His most famous cycle is „Paintings Devouring Reality”: canvases that curl up like pancakes and absorb degraded objects that have their own history, blurring the boundary between traditionally understood painting and the object. Kokosiński treats the canvas like a living organism - tired, shrunken, not always beautifully taut - and the aesthetic of „skins” refers to corporeality. His work is sometimes set alongside the assemblages of Tadeusz Kantor, whose works he absorbed as a child.

A three-time leader of the „Compass of Young Art” ranking, Kokosiński has presented his works at many exhibitions in Poland and abroad; his works are in public collections - including the Bielska BWA Gallery, the Zachęta Contemporary Art in Szczecin, the Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków and the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko.