Jakub Julian Ziółkowski

Jakub Julian Ziółkowski (b. 1980 in Zamość) is a painter, draughtsman and sculptor, one of the most important contemporary Polish artists. In 2005 he completed his painting studies at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, defending his diploma in the studio of Leszek Misiak. He made his debut in 2004, and his painting, called metaphysical or surrealist, stood out at once against the background of the realist work, focused on the present, that dominated in Poland at the time.

Critics noticed in his art a richness of vision and eclectic inspirations: the tradition of Surrealism and metaphysical painting, the art of Japan and India, the works of Bosch, Witkacy, Schulz, Ensor, Picasso, de Chirico and the new Leipzig school. Ziółkowski has shaped his own painterly language, with which he explores human nature: he freely juxtaposes a contemporary mode of imaging with the archetypes and symbolism of tribal cultures, combining the physicality of the body and its organs with spiritual meditation. The individual motifs build a seemingly chaotic world in which, however, order paradoxically reigns. His most famous work is the monumental „The Great Battle under the Table”.

Quickly noticed abroad, he collaborates with the Foksal Gallery Foundation and the prestigious Hauser & Wirth gallery in Zurich and London. He took part in, among others, the Gwangju Biennale (2010) and the main exhibition of the 55th Venice Biennale „Il Palazzo Enciclopedico” (2013), and his work was shown monographically by the Zachęta in Warsaw („Hokaina”, 2011) and MOCAK in Kraków („You Are Mine”, 2023). His works are in the most important private and museum collections in the world.