Jędrzej Stępak: Spaces of the Brain- A Site Specific Installation is the third of five exhibitions in the International Focus Series I-V: 21 Szutka: Contemporary Art of Poland. Instead of one long exhibition, this year’s international focus will present a series of five shows presenting a multilayered viewpoint of the different aspects of contemporary Polish art from photography, painting, installation, graphic arts to fashion from July 2012 to June 2013.
Jędrzej Stępak, an installation artist, will be transforming the Mezzanine Gallery into a site-specific art installation. Visitors are welcome to visit the galleries and view the progress of the installation.
About the artist
Jędrzej Stępak was born in 1953.He lives with his wife, Karolina, and his daughter, Marysia, near Poznan. He creates his art all over the world. Whether in his own studio near Nowy Tomysl, an American university’s courtyard in California or the Malaysian jungle, the artist creates his visions honoring his muse – nature.
He explains this passion by his childhood in Puszczykowo situated in Wielkopolski National Park. As in the first years o fhis life he was in constant contact with nature, he inevitably became imbued with it. Although over 40 years have passed, I remember very well a 500-year-old oak tree near our house the artist says such things stay with you forever.
Apart from creating his own art works, the artist is involved in the development of a new generation. He has given numerous classes and workshops on landscape architecture, sculpture and spatial forms and performances. He is currently a research worker at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznait.
As a visiting artist, he has given lectures at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznait, Redfield in Amsterdam and Minerwa in Groningen, the Netherlands, the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev as well as at universities in Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia. In 1994 1995, while on Kosciuszko Foundation scholarship in the USA, he held classes for students of eight universities (e.g. Parsons The New School for Design in New York, Columbus University in Lima and California Art Institute in San Francisco). He actively supports young artists making their debut in the world of arts. He invites them to take part in his activities. Drawing on his many years’ experience, he helps them in organizing group and individual exhibitions.
Jędrzej Stępak is an artist of form. He has been shaping wicket, landscape and young people for 30 years.