Daniel Grzeszkiewicz

• born 1980
• born in Lublin
• he lives and creates his works in Lublin
• he specializes in illustrations, comics and painting

“The principle of progress is challenging the status quo”.
(Wilk bardzo zły, “Dziwny sen Spielberga”)

He graduated from the State Secondary School of Visual Arts in Lublin, where he was awarded a diploma in the art of exhibition in 2000, supervised by prof. Mirosława Kozan. He has had individual exhibitions in Warsaw, Wrocław and Lublin; he has also taken part in group exhibitions, including in Italy, France and Portugal.

The most important publications: “Noc” in the “Komiks Forum – 8 – Komiks ‘98” anthology, Łódzki Dom Kultury, 1998; “KGB” No. 11, Hubert Ronek, 2001; “X2” (art), story by D. Grzeszkiewicz and D. Cybulski, Coyot Presents, 2010 (ed. II, 2013); “Gedeon: zebrany”, Ważka, 2012; “Dom żałoby”, Vol. 8 (cover and art), story by D. Szcześniak, Timof i Cisi Wspólnicy, 2014; “Gedeon”, Gindie, 2015; “L’Or du Rhin 2: La fleche et la glaive” (art), story by R. Seiter, F. Hoff, Éditions du Long Bec, 2015.

The most important awards and distinctions: recognition for a black and white work, Polish Comics Festival, Łódź, 1998; the 1st award in the Professionals category, Festival of Printed Thoughts COM.X, Szczecin, 2006; distinction at the Prison Art Review, Sztum, 2006; the 1st award in the Professionals category (twice), International Festival of Comics, Łódź, 2006‒2007.

Daniel Grzeszkiewicz uses various conventions, genres and styles; therefore, one should discuss his “works” rather than his “work”.
Regardless from the genre (historic, science fiction, fantasy, horror), his illustrations are perfect in terms of method, which is visible in both traditional and mixed techniques (including painting, drawing, collage, acrylic paint, ink, pen, collage made of pasted speech balloons and panel borders).
He is equally good in colour and black and white images as well as those involving various shades of grey with a single intensive colour, which has a symbolic function as well.
Grzeszkiewicz oscillates between hyper-realism and grotesque; however, his characteristic works include grotesque and overdrawn images as well as ones full of detail, with intricate shading, resembling black and white drawings from the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
The artist admits his inspiration with other comics artists, i.e. Simon Bisley, which is visible in ink illustrations, and Alex Rossa, with whom he shares a tendency to detail as well as vivid and intensive colours.
Readers may also observe an influence of Dave McKean, in particular in the specific green and yellow palette, the characteristic chiaroscuro as well as shredded and shifted panels, joined like a collage.
What is typical of Grzeszkiewicz is plays with panelling, where he breaks off with the traditional divisions into tiers of images; he often uses diagonal perspective, close-ups, large splash pages, or multiple panels with similar content.

Daniel Grzeszkiewicz Gallery

More information about the artist: www.gedeon.a.waw.pl