Jan Kallwejt

• Born 1981
• Born in Warsaw
• Lives and works in Warsaw
• Specializes in vectored technique illustration

“I like decorative folk art very much, rich in elements based on simple shapes, rhythmically duplicated and combined with themselves. I often refer to such inspirations in my work.”

A graphic and illustrator, Jan Kallwejt works for traditional as well as internet media. He has contributed to both Polish and foreign interactive agencies such as HYPERmedia/Isobar from Warsaw or Fork Unstable Media Hamburg. Presently he runs an author’s design studio. He prefers to use simple and multiplied elements in his art and often refers to symbolism. He uses a restricted palette of colours, but chooses intensive hues aimed at visual contrast. His illustrations characterize themselves with “carpet” artistic elements and arrangements, creating abstract, decorative rhythms. They are created with the inspiration of children’s and primitive art. His themes encompass critical analysis of social and civilizational phenomena, often with a dose of humour and the grotesque with a bitter overtone revealed in the material layer of his work.

He is inspired by mass culture and naïve art and publishes his drawings in Polish periodicals such as “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Puls Biznesu”, “Zwierciadło”, “Bloomberg Businessweek Polska”, “Newsweek Polska” and “Wprost”, as well as international ones, such as “The Financial Times”, “Newsweek USA”, “The Guardian”, “The New York Times”, the Italian edition of “Elle”, “Forbes Japan”, “Die Zeit” and “El Pais”. He has also created illustrated opera programmes for Milan’s La Scala, as well as posters and a book “My First Pictorial Encyclopedia.”

Jan Kallwejt Gallery

More information about the artist: kallwejt.com