About artist

Andrzej Lichota (born 1972) is a world-renowned polish contemporary artist, painter, filmmaker, sculptor, and illustrator. The essence of his art is driven from human existence entangled in everyday feelings, emotions, and dilemmas. Through his work, the artist relying on his travel experiences, portraits human daily clashes with nature, history and sociopolitical context that eventually and inevitably leads us to face a common finality in death. He treats the world, nature and man as interpenetrating entities that are in constant motion and interaction with each other. Distinguishing and observing chosen elements of those entities allows Andrew to better understand his objects and transfer their struggles and emotions onto the canvas, sculptures, or installations. Lichota’s own personal experiences are the starting point for his work as he lets his creations to take shape through his thoughts and emotions that transcends through his brush strokes.   

 

Early Career  

Majority of Lichota’s early paintings were lost in 2002 when his studio along with his life’s work was consumed by fire. Struggling to cope with the loss of his creations, for many years, Andrew turned to cartoon drawing and filmmaking, enjoying domestic and international successes. He created over 60 animated films which earned him domestic and international recognition. Throughout his filmmaking years, Andrew was a member of juries at International Film Festivals in Sidney, Australia; Teheran, Iran; Łódź, Poland and Baia Formosa, Brazil.

In each of Lichota’s works, we face an image that is a meticulous record of emotions and thoughts resulting from personal experience. His paintings are very intimate in this respect and at the same time, they create a universal invitation for everyone to discover the world through one’s most important journey – into oneself.  

 

Return to Painting and Major Works

Andrew’s travels to Iran (2005 and 2011), Australia (2012), and La Gomera, Spain (2013) – became the impulse and inspiration that eventually lead to his great series of paintings and return to this form of art in 2013. As a result, between 2013-2020 the series “Iran”, “Australia” and “La Gomera” were created. Australia, Iran and La Gomera are all different realities, from which the paintings were born. They portrait artist’s vision embedded in conflicting levels of consciousness functioning in territorial or political isolation which determines their individual uniqueness.  

 

The series „Corrida” (2017-2021) is different from the others and, to date, consists of over 50 pieces of art. It includes a series of images that record various stages of a single event, the bullfight, of which the key element is the clash between man and an untamed savage animal taking place in a traditional and cultural setting. In this work, Lichota not only transfers his own impressions form the experience of the spectacle, but also gives his tribute to Spanish masters. In his works devoted to Goya and Picasso, the artist attempts to reinterpret bullfighting as seen through the eyes of those two painters. Lichota thus begins a painting dialogue with Goya and Picasso, who also took up this topic of tauromachy in their works. The paintings for the Corrida series do not exhaust the topic, nor is it a close series. Recent projects show that it will further evolve into different forms of art through experiments with textures, colors, sculpture and installations leading into a wider spectrum of possibilities.  

 

Corrida triptychs and Sculpture

Dance (2017), oil, canvas / each 170 x 120 cm

Corrida (2017), oil, canvas / each 198 x 147 cm

Corrida Requiem (2020), oil, metal, canvas / each 170 x 120 cm

Beautiful Death, (2017-2019), oil, canvas / each 198 x 147 cm 

 

The 7-meter (23 Feet) tall, “Hemingway” Statute is a sculpture that was erected for the Tropical Burning Man Festival in Brazil. The metal structure of characteristic, black and red colors continue to dominate over the Brazilian northern coast.

 

Recognition

Andrew Lichota received scholarships of the Polish Minister of Culture (2004) and the Erich Pommer Institut in Berlin (2011). His works also received nominations and awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Awards BAFTA (2015), Polish Ministry of Culture (2003), the Festival of European Satire (2008) or TVN’s First Prise for Script (2004).

 

Selected Expositions

 

Andrew Lichota’s works have been featured at the Palace of Art in Cracow, PolSwissArt in Warsaw, Parallax Art Fair, Kensington Town Hall, London, “Tropical Burning Man” visual arts festival in Brazil, National Museum in Cracow, Gallery of the Cervantes Institute in Cracow, Verenna and Palazzo Gallio, Gravedona, Italy and others.

 

2022 – “Corrida” Andrzej Lichota, Palace of Art, Cracow, Poland

2021 – Andrzej Lichota “Painting”, POLSWISSART Gallery and Auction House, Warsaw, Poland

2021 – “Andrzej Lichota. Four States of Consciousness”, Pałac pod Baranami, Cracow,  Poland

2020 – “Australia – Andrzej Lichota”, Arte Novum Foundation, Liberty, Cracow,  Poland

2019 – “Tropical Burning Man” visual arts festival in Baia Formosa (Brazil)

2019 – “Tauromachia, Andrzej Lichota’s Exhibition”, Gallery of the Cervantes Institute, Cracow,  Poland

2019 – “Art Now”, National Museum in Cracow,  Poland

2018 – Parallax Art Fair, Kensington Town Hall, London (UK)

2016 – “Ancient Palaces” Villa Monastero, Verenna and Palazzo Gallio, Gravedona (Italy)

and others.

 

Peter Fudakowski - british film producer and director. Oscar vinner for the film "Tsotsi""

(...) Lichota’s extensive series of abstract paintings entertain, move and delight, yet some individual paintings terrify and possibly disgust. They each tell a story as suggested in each painting’s title, a story which is essentially private to the artist and inspiring to the viewer. Unusually, there are many of Lichota’s paintings one could live with, and a few others one might only want to see in a gallery. In my view, this would qualify Lichota’s series of abstracts to be a candidate or nominee for an Academy Award, if there was
such an award.

  

"The world became complicated and is going through a time of transformation.
We cannot embrace the whole thing anymore, we are doomed to progressive fragmentation."

                                                                                                                                 Andrzej Lichota 

Awards and distinctions:

  • I Award for painting in National Competition, Bielsko Biała
  • Official selection to BAFTA, Londyn
  • Erich Pommer Institut scholarship – Berlin;
  • III Award in Animation category – European Satire Festival – Poznań;
  • II place in drawing competition, Humour Festival, Gdańsk;
  • Distinction of Creative Intelligence Society, Kołobrzeg;
  • Scholarship of the Minister of Culture
  • I Award of TVN in a competition for interactive program script;
  • participant of International Audiovisual forum organised by European Union and United International Pictures, Warsaw;
  • distinction funded by the Polish Minister of Culture and director of Museum of Caricature in Warsaw
  • participant of polish deputation during International Symposium for European Union in St. Polten and St. Leonhardt, Austria;
  • II Award in National Drawing Contest „Woman and Man”.
  • distinction of Krakow's Academy of Arts  professor for painting work  

 

Lecturer:

He was lecturing classes in animated film diretion among others, for:

  • Krakows Film School them. Wojciech Jerzy Has under „Training with Mastrers”
  • ROSHD Interna Film Festival in Teheran „Animation – Development directions with youths education”

 

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