Maciej Szczęśniak

Maciej Szczęśniak (born 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, video, sound, performance, painting, site-specific works and texts, vice-dean for student affairs at the Faculty of Media Art of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Biography In 2013, he graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Intermedia at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (in the same year he received a scholarship from the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków for the best students), and in 2016 with a master's degree from the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 2018, he qualified for the Seismograf III young art review organized by Bunkier Sztuki. In 2020, he received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2024, he earned a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Art of the University of the Commission of National Education in Kraków under the supervision of Artur "Arti" Grabowski. He co-founded the Option Gallery in Kraków and the artistic groups Option and The Flutes. Together with Sara Piotrowska, he created the Piotrowska/Szczęśniak atelier (artist-run space). He began working as a primitivist tattooist and a lecturer at the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He exhibited, among others, as part of Cracow Art Week Krakers (2018–2022).

Exhibitions Individual exhibitions Poczywczy, szorstki w obejściu, ze skłonnościami do autorytaryzmu, , 2018 Hiacynty pachną jak feta, Krakers, 2019 Gentle Way, Automat Artspace, Saarbrücken, 2021 Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear, Krakers, 2022 Game of risk, „Nowy Złoty” Gallery, Wrocław, 2022 Operacja na żywym ciele, LELE Art Space, Warszawa, 2022 Biedny i szczęśliwy. Kondycja współczesnego artysty, ArtZona, , 2024

Group exhibitions Ciepłe, zimne i nieludzkie, , Nowy Sącz, 2014 Mimikra/Mimicry, Muzeum Etnograficzne w Warszawie, 2015 A non existent object, Gallery 91, Centje, Czarnogóra, 2015 Lektury, Galeria Salon Akademii, Warszawa, 2015 The Artists, The Flutes, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, 2016 Widzimisię, Rondo Sztuki, 2017 12 minutes to symmetry, CLB Berlin, 2017 Humanista nie wita dnia uśmiechem, 2020 Pochwała przemijalności, 01 Gallery, 2020 Show off, Matca artspace, Cluj-Napoca, 2020 Peaks, Pics and Other Inconsistencies, Liptovska galeria Petra Michala Bohuna, Liptovský Mikuláš, 2021 Festiwal Narracje, Gdańska Galeria Miejska, 2021 Ultimate hits for apocalypse, galeria „Kiosk”, a part of Cracow Art Week, Kraków, 2022 Footnote 19: No Medium, Biuro Wystawa, Fundacja Sztuki Nowoczesnej, Warszawa, 2019 Via Carpatia, Galeria IMO, Stary Sącz, 2023

Source. the award of the director of the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Słupsk (2017) and the second prize in the international competition "Zaszkodcenia/Apoptosis" organized by the Centre for Contemporary Art in Krakow (together with Sara Piotrowska, 2019).