The Polish Artists Group Exhibition is the final 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.
A group exhibition of contemporary artists living and working in Poland. The work will include fashion art, painting, and graphic arts. The featured artists include: Maciej Guzniczak whose graphic arts work is titled Faithful to Black; Monika Kostrzewa whose fashion arts and fibers work is titled Monika Izabela Kostrzewa-Subtle but Strong; and Alexander Wereszka whose artwork is titled Silhouette Line. Monika Kostrzewa will be at Appalachian State doing an artist residency from February 26 – March 4 where she will be installing her work in the galleries and meeting with students and community members.
About the artists
Monika Kostrzewa
Monika Izabela Kostrzewa was born in 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski. From 1990 to 1995 she studied at the W. Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts in Lódz in the Fabrics and Clothing Department where she specialized in clothing and jewelery design.
She received her degree clothing design in 1995 and from there attended a postgraduate UNIVERSITÉ de la MODE course in Fashion and Design in the branch of the Lyon University at Technical University in Lódz.
Since 2001 she has been lecturing on artistic graphics and magazine graphics at the Pedagogical and Artistic Department of the Adam Mickiewicz University (WPA UAM) in Kalisz. In 2006 she earned her PhD in Fine Arts within the area of applied art. She has been designing a few collections each year and cooperating with many Polish clothing, knitting fabrics and underwear manufacture companies. She has designed for the following lines: Ted Lapidus, Personalisty, Lantier, Veroniqe, Luigi Vesari and Hacker.
Monika Izabela Kostrzewa’s collections were presented many times at international fashion fairs in Poland and abroad, at which they received medals and honorary mentions inlcuding the Golden Baste Award in 1999, the Gold Medal of the Poznan International Fairs for the collection of shirts Ted Lapidus 2000, Gold Medal of the Poznan International Fairs for the collection of knitted fabric works Ted Lapidus 2001. The collection of underwear entitled Structures and Texture of Nature was among finalists of Intima Art competition organized by National Chamber of Fashion in 2003.
In 2003 she was nominated to the Designer and Producer of the year award for life-time artistic achievement in designing. In 2004 she received honorary mentions for two collective collections entitled Sweet Dreams and Paradise in Intima Art competition organized by National Chamber of Fashion. STRIMA company awarded her with a diploma for the best designer of underwear. Both collections were presented at Le Salon International Interfilière and Lingerie in 2005 in Paris.
Her own original clothing and graphics designs have been presented in many exhibitions in Poland and abroad and have been published in fashion magazines.
Maciej Guzniczak
Maciej Guzniczak was born in 1967 in Kalisz. He studied at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and graduated from the Art Institute in Kalisz. In 2006 he received his doctorate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw. He has been working as a lecturer in the Institute of Art and Pedagogy (UAM) in Kalisz since 2000 and as an assistant professor and the head of Graphic Art Studio in the Department of Visual Education in Faculty of Pedagogy and Arts since 2009.
Maciej Guzniczak has been featured in 16 individual exhibitions and has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. He has assisted in organizing several art auctions and has been acted as a juror and organizer of students’ outdoor exhibitions in the Department of Art Education at the University of Adam Mickiewicz and the University of Janki Kupaly in Grodno, Belarus. His works are included in several private collections in Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belorussia, Japan and Turkey.