The author of installations, objects, drawings, artist’s books, and performances, he is one of the most important representatives of conceptual art in Poland. From 1963 to 1969, he studied at the Faculty of Painting at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Poznań (now the University of Arts in Poznań). In 1967, he became a lecturer at his alma mater, teaching drawing and painting. He served as its rector from 1981 to 1987. He was also a professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, as well as a lecturer at Statens Kunstakademi in Oslo (1993-1997) and Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (1996-2004). From 1972 to 1990, he ran the Akumulatory 2 Gallery in Poznań, which presented the work of Polish and international avant-garde artists. The Archive of Ideas Gallery, established in 2019, continues this legacy. From 1991 to 1993, he curated the gallery program and collection of the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. In 2006, Jarosław Kozłowski represented Poland at the São Paulo Biennial.
Jarosław Kozłowski’s work stems from conceptualism. He treats his work as a cognitive tool, engaging in a critical and analytical reflection on art and its credibility. He draws on the philosophy of language, logic, semantics, and semiology. His works from the 1970s are purely linguistic in nature, translating the principles governing logical propositions into reality and vice versa. In the 1990s, Kozłowski coined the term “third circle,” which encompasses elements of both reality and art, devoid of context and mutual borrowing. According to this premise, artists can use any materials and methods in their work. Since 1993, Kozłowski has been referring to this very concept in his work. Using ready-made objects, mostly everyday items, he explores the relationships between them. Since the late 1990s, his work has also reflected on the contemporary world and current events. Participant of the first edition of the OPEN CITY Festival of Art in Public Space.
(Source: Museum of Contemporary Art in Łódź)
“Jarosław Kozłowski acutely understands and perceives words that conceal profound meanings. And he now places such words in the city space. Behind each of them lie millions of past and future events. Each of these words has affected us many times and will likely continue to do so in the future. Word – Silence – Memory – Silence – Scream
Laughter – Fear – Sorrow – Mockery – Forgetting.”
– Maria Anna Potocka
