Jan Aleksander Tyniec

Jan Tyniec

Jan Aleksander Tyniec (born 15 March 1960 in Warsaw) is a Polish artist who works in painting, drawing and photography.

Life and work

He took part in exhibitions such as "Freshly Painted: Young Polish Painting from 1982–1987" (Zachęta, 1988) and "Europa" (Promotional Gallery, Large SARP Pavilion, 1989).

He received Master of Arts degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1983) and from Hunter College, City University in New York (1989).

His first individual exhibition took place in 1985 at the Dziekanka Studio in Warsaw.

In his early works, he mixes styles, "heaps meanings and symbols, constantly balances between extremes - from coquettish aestheticism to formal ugliness, from grotesque to drama, from banality to rudimentary questions of an ontological nature". "The strength of this painting also lies in its expressive, bold colour combinations".

River, from "Altars" series, 1990, triptych, 272 x 396 cm, oil on linen

In 1986, after moving to New York, he devoted himself to large-format paintings. In 1995, he started taking more and more photographs, which changed his thinking about drawing and painting. At times he combined painting and photography (a series of collages - paintings and installations "Designs for the Sky" 1997-1999). He created archetypes of landscapes, works suspended between the intellectual and emotional aspects of what is real and what is imagined.

From the late 1990s to 2021, he traveled with his camera around the United States, Antarctica, as well as Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia and China. The following long-term photographic projects were created: "Designs for a Water Surface", 1997–1998; "Mekong", 1996–2008; "Designs for the Sky", 1997–2000; "Indefinite Boundary: Desert", 1998–2000; "Indefinite Boundary: Antarctica", 2001.

The artist devoted separate series to the island of Bali - "Full Circle: Bali". It consists of the following projects: "Full Circle: Portrait", 2002–2004; "Full Circle: Lotus", 2002–2009; "Full Circle: Rice Fields," 2002–2006; "Bonsai", 2009–2013; "True Grass", 2015–2020.

He photographs in a way that does not suggest to the viewer the scale of the presented image and does not limit the possibilities of interpretation. In 1997, his photographs of Hong Kong were published in Guggenheim Magazine.

Since February 2022, the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he has been making a series of drawings called "Smoke Atlas".

Design for the Sky, 1997, 30 x 46 x 5 cm, collage; photography, oil and alkyd resin on wood board

In 1986–1988 he was a scholarship recipient of the Fulbright Program in New York, and in 1987 also of the Kościuszko Foundation (Wanda Roeh Fund).

In 1988, he participated in residency programs at the Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, New York (USA), and in 2002 and 2003 at the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts in Bali, Indonesia.

Bonsai, 2012 neg.335280.2.12.2012, gelatin-silver print (on fiber base Ilford full matte paper), 51 x 40 cm, edition of 15.

From 1986 to 2005, he lived and worked in New York City, later moving to Hawley, Pennsylvania. Since 2016, he has been dividing his time between Warsaw and Bali.

Works in institutional and private collections (selection)

• Zachęta, National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (Poland)
• Becton, Dickinson and Company, New Jersey (USA)
• Bear and Stern, New York (USA)
• Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois (USA)
• Estee Lauder Companies, New York (USA)
• Equitable Life, New York (USA)
• Fidelity Investments, Boston (USA)
• Hartz Mountain Industries, New Jersey (USA)
• Reader's Digest Association, New York (USA)
• VSA Partners, Chicago (USA)
• Williams and Connolly LLP, Washington (USA)

Shape of Blood, 2022; 29.7 x 42 cm, graphite and colored pencils on paper

Exhibitions

Individual

• 1985 "Jan A. Tyniec", Galeria Desa "Nowy Świat", Warsaw (Poland)
• 1985 "Jan Tyniec", Dziekanka Studio, Warsaw (Poland)
• 1986 "Painting - Jan A. Tyniec", Galeria Desa "Nowy Świat", Warsaw (Poland)
• 1989 "Culture - Nature", Promocyjna Gallery, Warsaw (Poland)
• 1990 "New Drawings", Critics Gallery Pokaz, Warsaw (Poland)
• 1997 "Designs for the Sky", Critics' Gallery Pokaz, Warsaw (Poland), "Designs for the Sky", Birch St. Annex Gallery, Taos, New Mexico (USA)
• 2002 "Indochina – Antarctica", Bali Purnati Center for the Arts, Bali (Indonesia)
• 2003 "Full Circle: Bali", Edward Carter Gallery and Collegiate School in New York (USA)
• 2004 "Full Circle: Bali", Klima Bocheńska Gallery, Warsaw (Poland)
• 2007 "Radiance Cycles", River Gallery, Narrowsburg, New York (USA)
• 2013 "Jan Tyniec and Stephen Geldman", Lodge at Woodloch, Hawley, exhibition organized by Kiesendahl+Calhoun Fine Art Ltd., Pennsylvania (USA)
• 2014 "Full Circle: Bali", Ganesha Gallery; "Four Seasons Resorts", Jimbaran, Bali (Indonesia) "Photographs - Jan Tyniec and John Back", Alliance Gallery, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, New York (USA)

Group

• 1983 "Jeune Peinture", Grand Palais, Paris (France)
• 1986 "Polish Contemporary Landscape Works", the Kościuszko Foundation Fundacja Kościuszkowska, New York (USA)
• 1987 "Print Suite", New York City Hunter Gallery, Hunter College, New York (USA)
• 1988 "Świeżo malowane: młode malarstwo polskie lat 1982–1987"/Fresh Paint – New Polish Art in the Years 1982-1987, Zachęta Gallery, Warszawa (Poland)
• 1989 "Young Painting (Polish Painting 1982–1987)", curated by Jacek Werbanowski, Moscow, Natioal Paintings Gallery, Lvov (USSR) "Europa", Promocyjna Gallery (Duży Pawilon SARP), Warszawa (Poland) "Redefining Visionary Art", Doma Gallery, New York, "New Polish Painting", Palffy Palace, Vienna (Austria)
• 1990 "Around the Coyote '90", Wooden Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (USA) "(the) Landscape in Question", Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneanta, New York (USA) "Galeriada", Galeria BWA, Sopot (Poland) "Warschauer Künstler Stellen sich vor", galeria Ars Polona, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 1990–1992 "The Expressive Struggle", Miami University Art Museum (USA), travelling exhibition: The Anderson Gallery, Buffalo, Nowy Jork, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Gallery, Ohio, Oxford, Ohio, Museum of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and The New York Academy of Art, New York (USA)
• 1991 "The Art of Eastern Europe", Castle College Gallery, New Rochelle, New York (USA)
• 1997 "Oceans and Galaxies", Karen McCready Fine Art, New York (USA) "Neolandscape", First Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (USA) "Aerial Perspectives", DC Moore Gallery, New York i Kendall Gallery, Miami Dade Collage, Miami, Florida (USA "Heat", View Gallery, New York (USA) "Baltic Iconopress Around Maps", Contemporary Art Center/National Museum, Zamek Książąt Pomorskich, Szczecin (Poland) "Recent Editions and Monotypes", Galamander Press, New York (USA) "Collector's Choice", Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida (USA)
• 1999 "Recent Editions from New York Area Presses", Leroy Nieman Center for Print Studies, Uniwersytet Columbia, New York (USA) "Works on Paper", curated by Karen McCready Fine Art, Jan Abrams Fine Arts, New York (USA)
• 2000 "Not a Theme Show", curated by Vicky Clark, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh (USA)
• 2001 "Spectra", National Photography Biennial, Silvermine Guild Arts Center New Canaan, Connecticut (USA); "America the Beautiful", Edward Carter Gallery, New York (USA)
• 2002 "Through the Lens of September 11", SoHo Photo Gallery, New York (USA)
• 2003 "From Fire to Ice: Conflicting Concepts", Edward Carter Gallery, New York (USA)
• 2004 "Contemporary Photography from Jayne H. Baum Gallery" Leslie Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts (USA)
• 2005 Bloom Sage & Madison in association with Jayne H. Baum Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York (USA)
• 2006 "Life in Black and White, Five Photographers Perspective", River Gallery, Narrowsburg, New York (USA)
• 2012 "Art Infinitum", Tony Raka Gallery, Ubud, Bali (Indonesia)
• 2013 "The Age of Photography" Tony Raka Gallery, Ubud, Bali (Indonesia)
• 2015 "Barriers, Boundaries & Fences", online-B-Gallery group exhibition, the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, New York (USA)