Adrian Wiszniewski

The Barber Oil on canvas, on panel, 1984203 x 152cm£25,000

Born in Glasgow in 1958, Adrian Wiszniewski remains best known as one of the ‘New Glasgow Boys’, who shot to prominence in the mid-1980s with huge, exuberant figure paintings as redolent of fantasy and myth as they were attuned to the workings of contemporary thought and everyday life.

Initially studying Architecture at Glasgow School of Art he transferred to the School of Drawing and Painting (1979 – 83). He won the Haldane Trust Award, Cargill Scholarship and Mark Rothko Memorial Trust Fund Award in the early 1980’s.

Acquisitions by the Tate in 1985 and the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1986 led to his work being acquired by many public collections in the UK and internationally. Between 1986-87 he was artist in residence at the Walker Gallery, Liverpool. Since then his work has developed in many different directions. He has brought the same creative energy of his paintings to printmaking, sculpture, installations, furniture and interior design and writing, regarding the exploration of new media as a central part of the art of communicating fresh ideas. Impossible to predict, his work breaks new ground when least expected, whilst always retaining its unique and unmistakeable graphic stamp.

In 2011 an exhibition of his recent paintings were shown at 108 Fine Art, Harrogate in a collaborative exhibition with the musician and artist Edwyn Collins.

In 2014 a book on the artists life and work was published by Sansom and Company. A limited edition hardback of the book is available through 108 Fine Art. With over 100 illustrations this excellent publication is the first to provide an overview of Wiszniewski’s art over thirty years of continuity and change. Ten essays mix chronological survey with thematic discussion to identify both the core elements and the more distinctive features of the artist’s surprisingly consistent creative personality.

Works by Adrian Wiszniewski

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