Wilhelm Sasnal (b. 1972, Tarnów, Poland) studied architecture at the Krakow University of Technology (1992-1994) followed by painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow (1994-1999). Sasnal has emerged over the last two decades as one of Europe’s preeminent contemporary painters. Sasnal regularly uses photographic imagery – drawn from films, reproductions of art, pop culture or his own phone – as the starting points for his paintings, which then undergo various levels of distortion, simplification or abstraction. His work often addresses weighty historical themes such as the Holocaust, or familiar pop-cultural icons, as well as the people, places and objects around him, constituting an artistic document of post-Communist Poland at a time of socio-political transformation.
