Joanna Concejo (née Iwankowicz, born 1971 in Słupsk) – is a Polish graphic artist, illustrator, and author of books. She graduated from an art high school in Koszalin and earned her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań in 1998. Since then, she has been living permanently in France. She took the surname of her husband, a Spaniard.
She treats a pencil as an extension of her thoughts. In words, she seeks emotions and memories, which she captures in images. Books featuring her illustrations are regularly published in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Poland.
“Years ago, I accidentally came across her drawings online. […] I immediately dreamed of entering the realm of her visions. […] They are focused, reflective, somewhat surreal, and – I would say – vintage. I was enchanted, because few people draw like this today. Joanna refers to illustrative moods that I remember from my own childhood.”
— Olga Tokarczuk
(Polish Nobel Laureate in Literature)
Before being selected in 2004 for the Illustrators Exhibition at the prestigious Bologna Children’s Book Fair, she tried to break into the art world with installations. She participated in several group exhibitions for young artists in South Korea, Berlin, and Paris. She also experimented with collage, painting, and large formats. This period of searching exhausted her. Eventually, she picked up a pencil and a piece of notebook paper – and that’s how she found her unique style.
Joanna Concejo grew up in a Kashubian village surrounded by nature. This is reflected in her work through recurring motifs: stylized flowers reminiscent of embroidery patterns, leaves, fruit, and forest landscapes. She uses all types of pencils, in various degrees of hardness, including colored leads: green, blue, red. She also uses crayons. Her ideas are noted and sketched in notebooks, and her final artworks are typically created on old papers. Concejo’s artistic work is a constant return not only to favorite motifs but also to ancient legends and fairy tales. However, she does not follow well-trodden paths – she weaves visual stories that defy conventions and give them new life. Her renditions of Little Red Riding Hood and The Wild Swans are modern, symbolic, and laced with both fear and humor.
She created the illustrations for The Lost Soul (for which she and Olga Tokarczuk received a Bologna Ragazzi Award in 2018 in the Fiction category) in a gridded accounting notebook with stamped pages. This book is a brief reflection on time and the need to stop in a rushing world. Concejo suspends time through richly detailed and melancholic images. Short, jagged pencil strokes create a sense of unease. Her illustrations do not merely accompany Tokarczuk’s text – they reveal hidden, and sometimes even absent, meanings.
Illustrating Smoke was much more difficult – it depicts the terrifying world of a Nazi extermination camp through a child’s eyes. In interviews, Concejo spoke of long preparations: discussions with the author (Antón Fortes) and the Spanish publisher OQO, in-depth study of historical documents, photographs, and films. The result is imagery that combines subtle form with expressive impact. In 2009, the book was included in the White Ravens list – as was The Lost Soul in 2018 – compiled by the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich. This recognition is awarded to books that tackle universal and important topics while offering high artistic value and innovative graphic design.
Her work bridges two worlds – allowing adults to reconnect with their inner child. This is also true of the book M as in Sea, which, after success in Italy, was published in Poland in 2021. It’s a story about growing up, seeking identity, and grappling with emotions. It is full of important thoughts and even more intentional ambiguity, encouraging readers to engage deeply. The book’s motto is a quote from Eran Kolirin’s film The Band’s Visit: “In the morning by the sea, you can hear the whole world.” Paraphrased, one might say: in Concejo’s drawings, you can see the whole world.
She values unique, personal books. One such example is the picture book When the Currants Are Ripe, published in 2017. The reader feels as if browsing an album filled with pasted-in memories. It contains landscapes and solitary objects, mysterious blurs, fading faces, and figures “frozen in contemplation” – all recurring motifs in Concejo’s work. Some drawings appear unfinished, as if cut off mid-thought, echoing a line from the book: “He took a stub of an old pencil from his pocket and wrote on the door: I will return.”
In The Prince in the Pastry Shop, which was named “Best Book of the Year 2013” in the Graphics category by the Polish section of IBBY, the jury praised it as a “graphic and literary gem” with “a unique atmosphere, subtle form, and multilayered dialogue between content and independent image.” The book’s pages stretch over 6.5 meters in an accordion fold.
Polish:
Komu, komu buzi? (Text: Marzena Rotelle, Illustrations: Joanna Concejo), Wydawnictwo Fresk, 1999
Dym (Text: Antón Fortes, Illustrations: Joanna Concejo), Wydawnictwo Tako, 2011
Książę w cukierni (Text: Marek Bieńczyk, Illustrations: Joanna Concejo), Wydawnictwo Format, 2013
Czerwony Kapturek (Text: Brothers Grimm, Illustrations: Joanna Concejo), BIR Publishing / Tako, 2015
Dzikie łabędzie (Text: Hans Christian Andersen, Illustrations: Joanna Concejo), Wydawnictwo Tako, 2017
Kiedy dojrzeją porzeczki, Wydawnictwo Wolno, 2017
Zgubiona dusza, Wydawnictwo Format, 2017
Pan Wyrazisty, Wydawnictwo Format, 2023
International:
Humo, OQO, 2008
L’Angelo delle scarpe, Topipittori, 2009
Cuando no encuentras tu casa, OQO, 2010
I cigni selvatici, Topipittori, 2011
Una stella nel buio, Topipittori, 2012
Les fleurs parlent, Casterman, 2013
Quand les groseilles seront mûres, L’Atelier du Poisson Soluble, 2015
For her illustrations in The Prince in the Pastry Shop by Marek Bieńczyk, she received the title “Best Book of the Year 2013” in the Graphics category (Polish section of IBBY).
Winner of the prestigious Tallinn Illustrations Triennial 2023, awarded every three years by an international jury.
