Piotr Janas

Piotr Janas is recognized for his paintings, which blend elements of abstraction, figuration, and Surrealism to portray an imaginary world inspired by science fiction.

Biography of Piotr Janas

Piotr Janas was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1970. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw from 1991 to 1996, studying under the guidance of Jerzy Tchórzewski, a painter, educator, and activist whose influence significantly shaped Janas's artistic direction.

In 1999, Piotr Janas was honored with the EXIT art magazine prize in the 34th National Painting Contest "Bielska Jesień '99."

His work gained international recognition, and in 2006, Janas participated in the group exhibition "Infinite Painting: Contemporary Painting and Global Realism," curated by Francesco Bonami at the Villa Manin Centro d'Arte Contemporanea. He also contributed to "Polish Painting of the 21st Century" at the National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and the 50th International Venice Biennale in 2003.

Since the early 2000s, Piotr Janas has presented his works in solo and group exhibitions worldwide.

Some of his solo exhibitions include:

• "Blue is the Decayed Pink" at Thomas Erben Gallery, New York (2022).
• "Minotaurs" at Bortolami Gallery, New York (2013).
• "Stains, shame and latencies" at Nicolas Krupp, Basel (2013).
• "Zet, ziet, żet" at Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw (2009).
• "From Scherzhauserfeld" at Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch, Berlin (2008).

Currently, Piotr Janas lives and works in his hometown, Warsaw.

Piotr Janas's Art Style

Arising from the post-1960s and 70s Polish avant-garde, which sought new directions for Surrealism as a means of escaping reality, Piotr Janas explores the capacity of painting to evoke a realm beyond the ordinary. His work delves into how the physicality of the medium can evoke associations with materials found in the real world.

Janas' color palette frequently incorporates flesh tones and hues with powerful emotional or material connotations, often linked to the toxic or abject. This is apparent in the expansive oil on canvas artwork "Slash" (2010), portraying a tubular limb-like form violently severed, with dark red paint dripping from the wound.

Drawing inspiration from the monstrous half-human, half-bull creature in Greek mythology, Piotr Janas's 2013 exhibition "Minotaurs" delved into the realms of the grotesque, post-apocalyptic, sexual, and masculine. The showcase featured a series of large-scale paintings that seamlessly combined biomorphic forms with painterly gestures reminiscent of abstract expressionism.