Piotr Leśniak

• Born 1968
• Born in Kędzierzyn-Koźle
• Lives and works in Warsaw
• Specializes in illustration, portrait sculpture and medallic art

“When I worked daily in the British ‘The Times’, the enormous challenge was a strict deadline of two hours for delivering a portrait. The editor of its sister newspaper, ‘The Sunday Times’ sent me a picture of a person to be portrayed for Sunday edition, usually at two o clock in the morning on Saturday. I had to deliver the illustration ready for the morning.”

Piotr Leśniak is an illustrator, or, as he calls himself, illustrator/portraitist. He debuted in 1992, just after commencing his studies at the Cracow Academy of Fine Art Graphics Department as a student of Professor Stanisław Wejman. He then went to work for the British edition of “Vogue Magazine”. Although he is interested in portrait sculpture, medaling, glass or mixed media, the most important medium for him is portrait illustration. He portrays many different persons, but his portraits of politicians are most popular. All his drawings are created digitally with use of the Wacom Tablet and a simple brush from Photoshop.

His work has been published in Polish periodicals such as “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Machina”, “Książki Magazine” and “Playboy”, as well as in prestigious foreign publications including “The Times”, “The Sunday Times”, “GQ”, “Vogue”, “The Financial Times”, “Time”, “Fortune”, “Foreign Policy”, “Politico Magazine”, “The Washington Examiner”, “LA Magazine”, “Vanity Fair”, “Time Asia”, “Diamond Quarterly Japan” and “L’Espresso”.

Piotr Leśniak Gallery

More information about the artist: piotrlesniak.com