Włodzimierz Książek

Włodzimierz Książek (1951 in Warsaw, Poland – body found May 18, 2011 in Pawtucket, USA) was a Polish-born contemporary artist based in New England, and since 2001 worked from a 6000 sq. ft. studio in Rhode Island. He was best known for his large-scale abstract paintings.Ksiazek studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art in Architecture in 1975. He emigrated to the United States in 1982 as a political refugee, escaping martial law in Poland.He became part of a community of visual artists, poets, and writers working on the Eastern seaboard. He had been a permanent resident of the United States since 1988.He died in his studio in Pawtucket, RI, where his body was discovered on May 18, 2011.

 

His works are abstract. Ksiazek used oil paints and encaustic painting on large canvasses to build up layers with thin washes and impastos, then scratches, splatters, gouges and picks at the paint to create incised geometric forms and lines.His works took up to six months to complete, and were usually untitled.He, personally, disliked to call his paintings abstract. If forced to label his work, he would use the term, "Constructionist."
Donald Kuspit, a professor of art history and philosophy noted that "The hard work that Ksiazek puts into his paintings ... in a constant effort to strike a new balance between two dimensions and three dimensions ... is what makes Ksiazek's paintings creative "advances" in the history of painting."
Wlodzimierz Ksiazek exhibited at Marisa Del Re Gallery and John Gibson Gallery in New York. He had numerous solo exhibitions at the Kouros Gallery in New York, and the Alpha Gallery in Boston., as well as throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His other solo exhibition record includes venues such as the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York,. His work resides in numerous public and private collections in the United States and abroad.Wikipedia