Konrad Ziółkowski

Konrad Ziółkowski was born in Strzelin, Poland, in 1981, and grew up in a family of artists. He was already taking commissions while still at school. In 2001 he began sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and during those years he also helped make festivals, exhibitions and multimedia shows. He was a member of the informal group El Nino. In 2006 he graduated with the highest distinction from the studio of Professor Zbigniew Makarewicz. He now works in contemporary and classical sculpture, and also in multimedia, computer graphics and animation. Each sculpture begins as someone he can picture: a real person, in a particular mood, caught in one action. Looking around. Thinking. Turning away. He then strips that figure back and rebuilds it. Sharp edges give him the line he wants. Drawing, cut into the mass, divides the form and becomes the last detail. Colour is never decoration on its own. It makes another space inside the piece, or marks what the figure is thinking. He is not interested in grand subjects. He would rather take an ordinary feeling, a gesture or a habit and break it into its parts. Form, drawing, colour and composition can take him days, and sometimes weeks, before the person he first imagined is standing there.