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 only changes the medium of inscription. My artistic practice investigates landscape as a space of continuous recording and the disappearance of traces. The main focus of my work is the relationship between landscape, memory, and the traces left by humans. I am interested in how geographic sites and images of reality become carriers of inscription—material, cultural, and imagined - and how this inscription persists over time. In my work, landscape functions as a structure of memory: layered, heterogeneous, and constantly undergoing transformation. It is not a representation of space, but its accumulation - a site where traces of presence overlap and become fragmented. I am particularly interested in the moment when human presence is reduced to a signal, a sign, or a residue - a form of inscription detached from its original context. In this sense, myth is not a narrative, but a way of thinking about the persistence and disappearance of traces. A point of reference for me is the tension between what is recorded and what disperses - from the material layers of landscape to attempts to transmit human presence beyond its boundaries, into cosmic space. My practice encompasses painting and interdisciplinary work in which the image functions as a field of overlapping traces, memory structures, and fragments of narrative. From this emerges a discontinuous cartography of presence - a record of what remains after humans.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 - PARALLEL LIVES, 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
Awards
2023 - Rector's Award, Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan2021 - Nomination for STRABAG Artaward International 2021, Wiedeń, Austria
2014 - Nomination for UAP Art Award "New image/New look", Poznań, Poland
2013 - Finalist of National Geppert Competition, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 - Finalist of National workshops "BMW/ART/TRANSFORMS/2012", Warsaw, Poland
2012 - Honorable Mention in National Exhibition of Drawing, Toruń, Poland
2011 - Laureate of International Competition "Being the center of (re)cognition", Poznań , Poland
2006 - Distinction for credit card project in Fortis Bank Polska S.A. contest, Warsaw, Poland.
Scholarships
2025 - "Polish culture worldwide" grant, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw2016 - 2018 - Pro-quality Scholarship for the best PhD students, University of the Arts, Poznan
2015, 2011 - Rector's scholarship, Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu
2006 – 2010 - Academic scholarship, ASP Poznań
International scholarships
2017 - Erasmus+ scholarship, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain2016 - Scholarship at the 19th International Dresden Summer Academy for Visual Arts, Germany
2010/11 - Erasmus scholarship, AKI Academy of Art & Design, Enschede, The Netherlands
Art residencies
2026 - Heraklion Art Studio Residency, Roi Moving Art, Heraklion, Greece (September 2026)2025 - 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 Zezere, Portugal
2023 - Artiest in huis, Destelheide Centrum voor Jeugd, Kunst en Creatie, Dworp, Belgium
2009 - Heckenlandforum, Dodenburg, Germany
Works in collections:
Mysia 3, Warsaw, PolandABC Gallery, Poznań, Poland
The T. Potworowski Museum of the Kępno Land, Kępno, Poland
Galeria e Artit Tiranë, Tirana, Albania
OSTEN Collection, Skopje, North Macedonia
Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA Museum), Gimpo, South Korea
Aviário Studio, Ferreira do Zezere, Portugal
Destelheide, Dworp, Belgium
Stiftelsen Grez-sur-Loing - Hotel Chevillon
Galeria Sztuki w Legnicy
L’esquisse Hotel Culturel, Barbizon, Francja
Kunsthalle Hilsbach, Aurach, Niemcy
Public commisions
"Space Delusions" - work in Visual Park on Strzeszynek lake, ABC Gallery, Poznań, Poland