Biography
Filip Wierzbicki‑Nowak (born 1985 in Poznań, Poland) is a visual artist and professor at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań. He completed his Master’s degree at the Faculty of Painting under the supervision of Prof. Dominik Lejman at the University of the Arts in Poznań. In 2018, he defended his doctoral dissertation at his alma mater, and in 2024 he obtained the degree of habilitated doctor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In his work, he combines painting, drawing, printmaking, film, installation, and site‑specific projects, exploring the relationships between nature, memory, and image. He has presented his work in 22 solo and over 80 group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. STATEMENT The trace does not disappear – it changes its medium of record. Scraping paint off toy cars in childhood and repainting them a new color, taking toys apart, and even tearing up the parquet floor in my room to see what lay beneath - this wasn't destruction. It was a first, intuitive attempt to reach the core. When the world around me felt dull, I built my own. I was always drawn to what is marked by time, raw and real - to the smell of old plaster and cellars. I feel an unspoken history in it. I seek something absolutely authentic and structural in life. Today, I do the same in painting. My painting is not a struggle - it is a process of building and organizing. I construct a world, then I cleanse it. I apply paint in layers, scrape out motifs I previously sketched in the archaeological museum, disrupt the surface of the canvas. Scraping away the dried layers, I uncover shapes that remind me of cave paintings. Time trapped in the thick paint is not so much a memory as a record of duration. Wrestling with the material, thoughts, paint. After a while, the original message loses its clarity. All that remains on the canvas is what survived the passage of time. I search for what is left in a person once they shed all roles, masks, and defense mechanisms: the raw, trembling truth, the weight of existence, and the primal trace I am trying to save from oblivion - this is my life, scraped onto the canvas.Education
2024 – Habilitation, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw2018 – PhD, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts, Poznań
2012 – MA Diploma, Faculty of Painting, Studio of Prof. Dominik Lejman, UAP, Poznań
Solo exhibitions (the last 5 years)
2026 - Before the Word, Heraklion Municipal Art Gallery, Heraklion, Greece (september 2026)2025 - Stored for a While, Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Barcelona, Spain
2024 - Equilibrium, Galeria AT, Poznań
2024 - Places, Kunsthalle Hilsbach, Aurach, Germany
2024 - Mity Współczesności, Galeria Sztuki w Legnicy
2023 - CONNECTIONS, Destelheide, Dworp, Belgium
2023 - White Noise, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA Museum), Gimpo, South Korea
2023 - Reference points, Galeria Sztuki Wozownia, Toruń
2022 - Mity, utopie, fantasmagorie, Miejski Ośrodek Sztuki, Gorzów Wielkopolski
2021 - Face-to-face, BWA Kielce
2021 - Terytoria, Centrum Sztuki Galeria EL, Elbląg
Group exhibitions (the last 5 years)
2026 - La Villa | The Key to Art from Poznań, Villa Farsetti, Santa Maria di Sala, Venice, Italy2025 - Breath 2025, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA Museum), Gimpo, South Korea
2025 - Migrations, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), United Kingdom
2024 - Based on True Stories, Chander Haat, Kolkata, India
2024 - Eyes of Hope, Alliance Française Ibadan, Nigeria
2024 - In Memory of Mustafa Okan, Black and White Stories, Izmir Painting and Sculpture Museum, Izmir, Turkey
2024 - Numerical Art - Fractality of the Universe, Oratorio di Santa Maria Vergine della Croce al Tempio, Florence, Italy
2023 - Expanded Cinema vol.2: TECHNOLOGIA - SCREENING, HIAP Gallery Augusta, Helsinki, Finland
2023 - Refiguracje, BGSW - Galeria Kameralna w Słupsku, Baszta Czarownic w Słupsku, Centrum Aktywności Twórczej w Ustce
2023 - Osten Biennial of Drawing Skopje 2022, National Gallery of N.Macedonia - Chifte Hammam, Skopje, North Macedonia
2023 - EARTH.ONE, LiTE-HAUS Galerie + Projektraum, Berlin, Germany
2022 - Tirana International Biennale of Graphic Arts - Galeria e Artit Tiranë, Tirana, Albania
2022 - Experimental Film & Video 2022 - Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA Museum), Gimpo, South Korea
2021 - Interakcje - MBWA w Lesznie
2021 - Struktura Sprzeczności - The Polish Museum of America in Chicago, USA
Selected Achievements
2026 – Finalist, 7th Leon Wyczółkowski Painting Competition, Bydgoszcz, Poland2025 – Grant from the "Polish Culture in the World" program, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland
2023 – Rector's Award, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts, Poznań, Poland
2021 – Nomination for the STRABAG Artaward International 2021, Vienna, Austria
Artistic Residencies
2026 – Heraklion Art Studio Residency, Roi Moving Art, Heraklion, Greece2025 – Artist in residence, Espronceda Institute of Art & Culture, Barcelona, Spain
2024 – Artist Residency, Akureyri Art Museum, Akureyri, Iceland
2024 – Hotel Chevillon Résidence artistes et chercheurs, Grez-sur-Loing, France
2023 – Creative residency, Aviário Studio, Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal
2023 – Artiest in huis, Destelheide, Dworp, Belgium
Public commisions
"Space Delusions" - work in Visual Park on Strzeszynek lake, ABC Gallery, Poznań, Poland