Krzysztof Piętka – Work Zone

Krzysztof Piętka’s work is closely connected to the place where he lives and creates his paintings, as well as to the history of his family and the immediate area - a place marked by the trauma of the Holocaust.

Agata Smalcerz, curator of the exhibition:

The psychedelic paintings of Krzysztof Piętka, with their simplified forms and virulent colours, are inspired by the traumatic past of the artist's hometown of Babice near Oświęcim, the site of the former zone of interest – the Interessengebiet of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi Concentration and Extermination camp.

The theme of the unprocessed, even inexpressible traumas experienced by his family, who for a long time had lived and farmed in the village of Babice, neighbouring Brzezinka and Oświęcim, recurs over and over again in the artist's paintings, confronting his own feelings. The idyllic landscape of farmland stretching south from the Vistula River, behind the flood barrier, witnessed one of the most horrific crimes in the history of humanity in the mid 20th century. The inhabitants of the surrounding area were displaced and their homes and lands taken over by the Nazis for the purposes of a concentration camp being built here. Their return after the Second World War to their own farms was, on the one hand, natural, but on the other, marked by the stigma of the tragedy that had befallen them here. The artist’s grandmother was a child during the war and had little awareness of what was happening next door (she was displaced to nearby Bieruń). However, the fetor of burning human bodies was something that even a child could experience at the time. She passed on the strongly held memory of the sensation to her grandson.

As a child, Krzysztof Piętka was unaware that he lived in a place marked by the history of the Holocaust. His sensitivity, however, registered the specific horror of the message, the traumatic aura of the place, and transferred it into his subconscious, which manifested itself in dreams. As an artist, he not only became aware of what this traumatic legacy was, but also began to explore the subject, which is reflected in his paintings. Created with great intensity and an inner intuitive imperative, the paintings conceal the memory of the past and at the same time are an expression of the present, of the inevitable dynamics of life.

At the exhibition “Work Zone” at Galeria Bielska BWA, the artist will present his latest oil paintings, created between 2022 and 2024, mostly untitled, whose intense colours and distinctive motifs give his paintings their individual recognisable style.

 Pictured: Krzysztof Piętka, photograph by Agata Smalcerz

Krzysztof Piętka was born in 1990 in Oświęcim. He lives and works in Babice near Oświęcim. He is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice; degree in the Painting Studio of Prof. Andrzej Tobis (2017). Finalist of the 13th Geppert Competition (BWA, Wrocław, 2020). Finalist of the 44th and 43rd Bielska Jesień Painting Biennale (Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała, 2019, 2017). Winner of the Special Prize of the 43rd Bielska Jesień 2017 Painting Biennale - purchase of a painting for the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA (‘Loop’, 2017, oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm). Honourable mention at the 9th Fish Eye Biennale of Young Artists at the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art ( Słupsk, 2017). Finalist of the 6th New Image/New Look competition for the Prize of the University of Arts in Poznań (2017). Grand Prix winner of the 2nd Ale Sztuka! Young Polish Painting (Gdańsk, 2016). Finalist of the Wojciech Fangor National Painting Competition for Students (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, 2015). He has held a number of solo exhibitions of paintings, including: ‘Żmijowisko’, Lotna Gallery (Warsaw, 2024); “Song of Songs” (with Raul Meel), Tallinna Kunstihoone (Estonia, Tallinn, 2024); “Home” (SZOKART Art Gallery, Poznań, 2024); “Circles of Madness” (MOS, Gorzów Wielkopolski, 2020); “Flood” (Monopol Gallery, Warsaw, 2018). He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions. 

Agata Smalcerz – art historian and critic, curator of exhibitions, author of tests on contemporary art published in books and magazines, head of Galeria Bielska BWA in Bielsko-Biała since 2004. 

Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko-Biała, ul. 3 Maja 11 (ground floor)
Krzysztof Piętka – 'Work Zone'
30 April – 22 June 2025
Curated by Agata Smalcerz
The opening: Wednesday, 30 April 2025, at 6.30 pm

Read more, view paintings on the artist’s site >> https://krzysztofpietka.com/cv/