Marek Szczesny (born 1939) is a Polish-born contemporary painter known for his abstract and gestural approach to painting and mixed media. His work often explores the dynamics of surface, rupture, and reconstruction, incorporating materials such as canvas, paper, cardboard, and metal. Szczesny has participated in more than thirty solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States.

. . He currently lives and works in Paris.

Early life

Marek Szczęsny was born in Radom, Poland, on 30 July 1939. Szczęsny was born in the year of the outbreak of WWII and spent his earlier life in occupied and post-war Poland.

Wanting to become an artist, Marek took private art lessons and in the late 1950s moved to Gdańsk, where he began attending lectures at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. In the 1960s he began associating with a group of artists from the Żak - a student cultural club in Gdańsk. During this time he met the Polish painter Tadeusz Brzozowski. In 1967 Szczęsny had his debut exhibition at Żak. Thanks to Brzozowski the commission at the Polish Ministry of Culture granted Szczęsny the status of artist and membership to the Association of Polish Visual Artists.

Career In the 1970s, Marek Szczęsny left Gdańsk and moved to Zakopane. For four years he was a member of the “GOPR” - the mountain rescue team specializing in winter rescue - in the Tatras, but continued to draw. Between 1970 and 1978 he exhibited his works in both group and solo exhibitions across Poland, Italy and Spain. It would be another 12 years before Szczęsny exhibited in Poland again (in 1991 as part of the group exhibition ‘Jesteśmy’ at Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Poland).

In 1978 Szczęsny left Poland for Paris and two years later was granted a Ford Foundation scholarship in 1980. At this time Szczęsny began to exhibit his work regularly in Europe.

From 2003 he had individual exhibitions in museums in France and Poland and was included in the exhibition “Polish Artists of the Twentieth Century” in France. In 2008 he had a solo exhibition entitled “Gravitation” at the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw. In 2016 in an exhibition titled “La Dechirure” at the Atlas Sztuki gallery in Łódź Szczęsny created a large wall sized installation using torn paper, cardboard and wood.

Between 1996 and 2008 Marek Szczęsny was awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation in New York and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska. He was also an artist in residence at the Edward F. Albee Foundation in Montauk, New York.

Szczęsny has participated in exhibitions across France, Poland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, the US, Japan, Germany and Austria.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2023 – Maison du Cygne, Centre d'Art, Six-Fours-les-Plages, France 2021 – Intranquillité, Galerie Dutko, Paris, France 2019 – Galerie Akie Arichi (with Aliska Lahusen), Paris, France 2017 – Galerie du Canon, Toulon, France 2016 – Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Łódź, Poland. 2016 – Akie Arichi Gallery, Paris, France 2015 – l’étrangère, London, United Kingdom 2009 – Hanna Muzalewska Gallery, Poznań, Poland 2008 – Gravity, Galeria Foksal, Warsaw, Poland 2005 – Municipal Gallery of Saint-Raphaël (with Jannis Kounellis), France 2004 – Centre d'Art Contemporain de la Méditerranée, Toulon, France 2003 – National Museum, Poznań, Poland. 2002 – Centre d'Art Contemporain de la Méditerranée, Toulon, France. 1999 – Akie Arichi Gallery, Paris, France 1998 – Askeo Gallery, Paris, France 1998 – Edouard Manet Municipal Gallery, Gennevilliers, France 1997 – Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw, Poland 1997 – FIAC (Rosa Turetsky Gallery), Geneva, Switzerland 1996 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Paris, France 1995 – Rosa Turetsky Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland 1995 – Accatone Gallery, Paris, France 1994 – Accatone Gallery (part of Volker Schlöndorff Film Festival), Paris, France 1994 – Bureau of Art Exhibitions, Zakopane, Poland 1994 – FIAC (Rosa Turetsky Gallery), Paris, France 1994 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Paris, France 1994 – Centre of French Culture, Luxembourg 1993 – Agi Schöning Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland 1992 – Rosa Turetsky Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland 1992 – Agi Schöning Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland 1990 – Accatone Gallery, Paris, France 1989 – MAC 2000: Manifestation of Contemporary Art, Grand Palais, Paris, France 1987 – Caractères Gallery, Paris, France 1985 – Art Gallery, Luxembourg 1979 – Institute of Polish Culture, Paris, France 1979 – Diagonal Gallery, Paris, France 1974 – Pegaz Gallery, Zakopane, Poland 1971 – Pegaz Gallery, Zakopane, Poland 1967 – "Zak" Student Club, Gdańsk, Poland

Group exhibitions 2025 – Winter Group Show, Galerie Dutko, Paris Design Week, France 2023 – Art Paris, Galerie Dutko, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France 2022 – Art Paris, Galerie Dutko, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France 2021 – Art Paris, Galerie Dutko, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France 2019 – L'Abandon du Sujet, Villa Théo, Le Lavandou, France 2018 – La Figure Seule, Château de Poncé, La Vallée du Loir, France 2016 – Layered Narratives: Collage/Photomontage/Print, l’étrangère, London, United Kingdom 2016 – De la Couleur à la Lumière, Abbaye de La Celle, Var, France 2015 – Museum of Contemporary Art Collection, shown at Museum de Arta, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2014 – Museum Gorlice, Contemporary Art Foundation of Małopolska, Poland 2014 – Couleurs Contemporaines, Châteauvert, France 2011 – Particolare, Paths of Democracy, Signum Foundation, Palazzo Donà, Venice, Italy 2010 – BWA Gallery, Katowice, Poland 2009 – Acquisitions 1999–2009, Hôtel des Arts, Toulon, France 2008 – Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków, Poland 2007 – Loneliness and Melancholy, Hans Weiss New Space Gallery, Manchester Community College, Connecticut, USA 2006 – Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, Kraków, Poland 2006 – Twenty-First Century Polish Painting, National Gallery Zachęta, Warsaw, Poland 2005 – Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków, Poland 2003 – La Collection, Hôtel des Arts, Toulon, France 2002 – Loin de la Ville, Château des Vintimille, Le Luc, France 2001 – Winter Exhibition, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska, USA 2001 – Osaka Triennale, International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Osaka, Japan 2001 – Edouard Manet Municipal Gallery, Gennevilliers, France 1998 – Yesterday and Tomorrow, Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, France 1997 – Art. 27, Marly-le-Roi, France 1997 – Akie Arichi Gallery, Paris, France 1997 – Galerie und Verlag, Hamburg, Germany 1997 – FIAC (Rosa Turetsky Gallery), Paris, France 1996 – Accatone Gallery, Paris, France 1996 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Paris, France 1996 – Centre for Contemporary Art, Pignans, France 1995 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Paris, France 1995 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Strasbourg, France 1994 – Rosa Turetsky Gallery (with Antoni Starczewski), Geneva, Switzerland 1994 – Emmanuel Carlebach Gallery, Paris, France 1992 – Signes de Liens, Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Orléans, France 1992 – Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris, France 1992 – Kunst auf Zeit, Graz, Austria 1990 – May Salon, Grand Palais, Paris, France 1990 – Jesteśmy, Zachęta State Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland 1990 – Aunkan Gallery, Osaka, Japan 1987 – Salon de Montrouge, Paris, France 1984 – Polnische Künstler Heute im Exil, Landau, Germany 1979 – Salon of Young Painters, Hall International des Expositions, Vincennes, France 1978 – IX Festival of Contemporary Polish Painting, Szczecin, Poland 1976 – National Painting Exhibition, Sopot, Poland 1975 – Museum of Sports and Tourism, Warsaw, Poland 1975 – National Painting Exhibition, Poznań, Poland 1973 – National Winter Exhibition, Zakopane, Poland 1973 – Bureau of Regional Art, Kraków, Poland 1972 – XIII Premi Internacional de Dibuix Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain 1970 – Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Busto Arsizio, Italy 30 January - 13 March 2015, Marek Szczęsny, l’étrangère 23 Jun – 31 Jul 2016, Layered Narratives: Collage/Photomontage/Print, l'étrangère

References

External links Official site Financial Times, 21/22 December 2014 Marek Szczęsny - artsy.net