Zbigniew Kupczynski

Zbigniew Kupczynski (28 November 1928 – 18 February 2024) was a Polish-Canadian abstract expressionist artist known for his colorful portrait paintings of celebrities and children. His work has been the subject of hundreds of exhibitions throughout Europe, North America, Australia and Japan since the 1950s.

While Kupczynski is known for his abstract and figurative works, he has experimented with a wide range of mediums. In the 1950s and 1960s, his paintings were predominantly oils on canvas. In the late 1960s, he experimented with metal compositions, which were exhibited in Poland, Sweden and Denmark. Acrylic paint has been his preferred medium since the 1970s, when he immigrated to Canada.

Described as "one of the wild boys of Polish art" by Harold Schonberg of The New York Times, many of Kupczynski's portrait paintings are characterised by his unique personal style, use of bright colors on canvas, and trademark mini-scenes on the accentuated noses of his subjects.

Career In 1946, Kupczynski moved to Wrocław to receive formal training at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1952, Kupczynski became a member of The Association of Polish Artists, but the country's socialist realism policy barred his work from exhibition due to his tendencies towards expressionism and semi-abstract art. Kupczynski devoted much of the 1980s to commissioned work, including posters for the Vancouver Opera, a ceramic mural for British Columbia's Children's Hospital, and a poster entitled Pax in Terra to commemorate Pope John Paul II's visit to Canada.

Kupczynski has been featured in many art shows in Canada and has had numerous exhibitions abroad, at the Drian Galleries in London, UK, the Art Emporium Gallery in Seattle, the Carimor Gallery in New York, and the Bancho Gallery and Atagoyama Gallery in Tokyo.

In 2001 he returned to Poland for two exhibitions, in the Art and Forma Gallery and the Gallery of the President in Warsaw. In 2002, another exhibition of his work was held at the Historical Museum of Warsaw, and in 2007 at the Polonia House, Kraków, Poland.

Kupczynski has written and been the subject of several books, including Journey to the Red Desert, Three Hundred Years Of Kupczynski,

In 2020, Kupcyznski was featured in the documentary "The Painter from Nowhere" by Christian Trineer. Kupczynski died on 18 February 2024, at the age of 95.