Born 1949

Painter, graphic designer and illustrator, also involved in photography. Repeatedly awarded in competitions for the best graphics. In the 1990s he created “metal paintings,” arranged from graphic matrices or sheets of metal subject to natural erosion. In recent years, he has been using wax, creating large-format and multi-layered compositions. Bielawski graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (in 1973), then in 1982-83 he worked there at the Faculty of Painting as a teacher. He exhibited jointly with artists forming the “About Improvement” movement, and in the second half of the 1970s he co-founded the “Cream” grouping with Łukasz Korolkiewicz and Ewa Kuryluk. Later, he created paintings close to matter painting, using natural materials such as earth, sand, mud, leaves and stones.After martial law was imposed, he took an active part in the independent culture movement in Warsaw – he boycotted official artistic life, and the motif of the cross dominated his work. In 1985 he was on a scholarship at Atelierhaus Worpswede (West Germany). Since the mid-1990s, the painting matter of Bielawski’s paintings has increasingly become beeswax, with which he covers the canvas. Since 2004, he has been creating large-format unnumbered canvases (each measuring 180 by 134 cm). All of them are characterized by a multi-layered structure, which the artist achieves by covering them with wax.In his artistic career Bielawski has taken part in many group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. He has also had numerous solo exhibitions, including two monographic exhibitions at Warsaw’s Zachęta Gallery (in 1997 and 2007). Since 1991, together with his wife Teresa Starzec, he has co-managed the Atelier Foundation in Warsaw.Selected solo exhibitions:

1973 – “Graphics and drawing” – Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw.

1974 – “Graphics and drawing” – Gallery of the Young, Warsaw.

1975 – “Graphics” – Salon BWA, Legnica

1975 – Galleri Aftenlandet, Copenhagen, Denmark

1978 – KMPiK Gallery Eastern Wall, Warsaw, Poland

1979 – “Graphics, drawing” – Salon of Contemporary Art, Łódź; BWA Gallery, Lublin; GP Gallery, Warsaw.

1981 – “Exhibition of Works” – BWA Arsenal Gallery, Poznan

1983 – Kulturhusets Konsthall, Skövde, Sweden

1984 – “Korsvandringen”. – Södertälje Kulturnämnd, Södertälje, Sweden

1985 – “Zeichnungen und Aquarelle” – Burgerzentrum, Bielefeld-Sennestadt, Germany.

1986 – La Petite Galerie, Bremen, Germany (together with Teresa Starzec).

1989 – “Exposition de gravures” – Atelier Contraste, Freiburg, Switzerland.

1990 – Pomeranian Dukes’ Castle, South Gallery, BWA, Szczecin

1991 – Salon of Contemporary Art BWA, Bydgoszcz

1992 – “From the Studio of Andrzej Bielawski”. – Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw

1994 – “Sheets and papers” – Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw; Bałucka Gallery, Lodz.

1997 – “Works from 1992-1996” – Zachęta Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland

1999 – Pryzmat Gallery, ZPAP, Krakow (together with Teresa Starzec)

2001 – “Works from 1990-2000”. – Studio Gallery, Warsaw

2002 – “Teresa Starzec and Andrzej Bielawski in the Kolo Gallery” – Kolo Gallery, Gdansk.

2007 – “Untitled. works 2004-2007” – Zachęta National Gallery of Art, WarsawSelected group exhibitions:

1971 – “Intergroup” – Galleria d’Arte Margutta, Syracuse, Italy.

1972 – “Exhibition of paintings and drawings”. – Studio Theater Gallery, Warsaw

1973 – VI National Exhibition of Graphic Arts – CBWA Zachęta, Warsaw.

1974 – 4th Triennial of Drawing – Museum of Architecture, Wrocław, Poland

1974 – “New Generation” – National Museum, Wroclaw.

1975 – “Generation XXX” – House of the Visual Artist, Warsaw;

1975 – “Young Artists ’75” – Union Carbide Building, New York, USA

1976 – VII All-Polish Exhibition of Graphic Arts – CBWA Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw.

1976 – The Art of Poland – Gallery International, Adelaide, Australia

1976 – VI International Biennale of Printmaking – BWA, Krakow.

1977 – Śmietanka – MDM Gallery, Warsaw.

1977 – Polnische Kunst Heute – Darmstadt, Germany.

1978 – VIII National Exhibition of Graphic Arts – CBWA Zachęta, Warsaw, Poland.

1978 – Now Drawing Is… – Kuabasaki Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

1979 – Polish Contemporary Graphics – National Museum, Wroclaw.

1979 – Biennale “Der Europäischen Grafik” – Heidelberg, Germany.

1980 – Unsere Zeit – Galerie Zum roten Ochsen, Erfurt, Germany.

1981 – “Poolse Kunst in Pulchri” – Purchri Studio, The Hague, Netherlands.

1982 – “Collections of contemporary art” – Studio Gallery, Warsaw.

1982 – “Jeune peinture – Jeune expression” – Grand Palais, Paris, France.

1983 – “Kunst aus Polen” – Kulturzentrum des Kreises Coesfeld, Kolvenburg Billerbeck, Germany.

1985 – Open Atelier House – Atelierhaus, Worpswede, Germany.

1986 – “Polish Contemporary Landscape Works” – The Kosciuszko Foundation, New York, USA.

1986 – “Malerai, Grafik, Zeichnungen. Bielawski. Ciecierski. Old man” – Galerie Perspective, Neuss-Düsseldorf, Germany

1987 – “Anxiety” – Rackham Gallery, Michigan, USA.

1987 – “Radical realism, concrete abstraction” – National Museum, Warsaw

1990 – “Grabado Contemporaneo Polaco”. – Salas Nacionales de Exposicion, Buenos Aires, Argentina

1990 – “Summer Salon” – National Museum, Krakow

1990 – IN PROGRESS – Pumpe e.v., Kiel, Germany

1991 – “Epitaph and the Seven Seals” – Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw.

1991 – Verbotene Ostkunst 1948-1989 – Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria.

1994 – “Grafik aus Warschau” – Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt n. Oder, Germany

1995 – “Polish Artists at International Festivals 1975-1995”. – National Museum, Wroclaw

1996 – “Polish Artists for the Museum in Vulkovar” – Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw.

1997 – “Generations. 25 Years of the Studio Gallery” – Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw

1998 – “Fragment of collection 3” – Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

1999 – “Amici di Tworki” – Polish Cultural Institute, Paris, France

2000 – “Twelve paintings” – Kolo Gallery, Gdansk.

2000 – “Die Vier Jahreszeiten” – Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankurt n. Main, Germany.

2000 – 18th Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting – National Museum, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Szczecin

2002 – “From the collection of Zacheta” – Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw.

2002 – “What does the glazed pupil of a corpse see” – Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

2002 – Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz.

2004 – “Genius loci. Graphics in the circle of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw” – Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw

2004 – “Warsaw-Moscow 1900-2000”. – Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw

2005 – “Warsaw-Moscow 1900-2000”. – State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

2006 – “Polish Painting of the 21st Century”. – Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw