Rafał Kostrzewa

Rafał Kostrzewa was born in 1961 in Katowice – between a mine and a planetarium, in a place where the underground severity of reality meets the infinity of space. This symbolic combination – the weight of matter and the lightness of imagination – left its mark on his work, the axis of which remains the dialogue between the tangible and the ephemeral.

He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he graduated in 1987 in the studio of prof. Tadeusz Dominik. At the same time, he developed in the field of sculpture under the supervision of prof. Adam Myjak and in the field of new media in the studio of prof. Ryszard Winiarski. His approach to art was interdisciplinary from the beginning – close to both classical craft and experiment.

His first significant exhibition took place in 1986 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, and shortly afterwards his works were presented in the local Alles Gallery.  The real breakthrough, however, was the exhibition at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw in 1988, which established his position on the Polish art scene.

He also continued his artistic education abroad – he graduated from the school of artistic crafts in Prague and studied at the Faculty of Drawing and Graphics of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic.