Warren Niesłuchowski

Warren Niesłuchowski (Altenstadt, October 11, 1946 – New York, June 17, 2019) was an American-Polish artist, writer, editor, translator and Vietnam War deserter who "inspired philosophical questions for many about home, exile, and family." According to ArtReview, his "nomadic lifestyle came to be considered as an artwork in itself."

Early life Born in a displaced person camp in Altenstadt, Germany to a Polish-Ukrainian couple, Niesłuchowski's family immigrated to the United States. He was raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. In 1968 Niesłuchowski moved to Europe to desert the Vietnam War draft. He initially settled in Paris where he performed with the Bread and Puppet Theater throughout Europe and in Asia. He returned to the US in 1974, after Gerald Ford offered amnesty to Vietnam deserters, and enrolled in an undergraduate art programme at Harvard. Following a chance meeting with the then director of the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center Alanna Heiss, he moved to New York to become Heiss's assistant. After losing his East Village apartment, Niesłuchowski adopted a nomadic lifestyle, often staying with friends across the globe. before traveling to the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw. A book of the same title was co-published that year by Cabinet Books and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.