Adrian Wiszniewski RSA is one of the most celebrated artists working in Scotland today. Having risen to fame in the 1980s as one of the ‘New Glasgow Boys,’ a group of young Glasgow School of Art graduates celebrated for repositioning figuration as a legitimate mode of expression in contemporary art, Wiszniewski’s career has spanned a huge range of media and approaches. This exhibition of works on paper highlights his elegant draughtsmanship and virtuosic skill as a printmaker.
Wiszniewski was born in Castlemilk, Glasgow, in 1958. He was the fifth of eight children to his Polish-émigré father and Glaswegian mother. In 1975 Wiszniewski entered the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art, but by the end of his degree visual art had become his main interest. Completing his architecture degree in 1979, he submitted a portfolio to David Donaldson RSA, Head of Painting, who admitted him as a second-year student to the Fine Art course. The tutelage of Alexander Moffat RSA at art school was instrumental in the development of Wiszniewski’s fluid but strongly delineated style. A portrait painter and close friend of the painter John Bellany HRSA (1942-2013), Moffat championed figuration and strong draughtsmanship at a time when abstraction was both commercially and critically popular. In 1985, Moffat curated the exhibition New Image Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre (now the Centre for Contemporary Arts). Moffat included Wiszniewski’s work alongside that of his classmates Steven Campbell, Ken Currie and Peter Howson. The exhibition garnered rave reviews and positioned these young graduates as trailblazers for a new mode of Scottish painting. The renown of these ‘New Glasgow Boys’ was furthered by the Edinburgh Festival exhibition, The Vigorous Imagination, held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1987.
The fame Wiszniewski found in his 20s gave him the confidence to pursue his practice on his own terms, constantly challenging the narrow definition assigned to his work early in his career. The variety of his creative outlay attests to his continual efforts to develop and surprise. Whilst his work is always recognisable, it is entirely unpredictable, and he is often spoken of in the same breath as esteemed Glaswegian polymaths John Byrne RSA and Alasdair Gray. Having started with drawing and painting, Wiszniewski quickly took on new challenges: tapestries and rugs, furniture, murals, stage sets, films and plays. It is hence unsurprising that the particularities of printmaking have always enticed him. The prints on view in this exhibition have all been made at Glasgow Print Studio which, under the directorship of John Mackechnie RSA, has provided both a workspace and encouraging community for Wiszniewski for many years.
Wiszniewski was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1994 and became a full Academician in 2004. His work is widely represented in international collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Setagaya Museum, Tokyo; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Tate Britain, London. He lives and works in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, with his family.
Adrian Wiszniewski RSA is one of the most celebrated artists working in Scotland today. Having risen to fame in the 1980s as one of the ‘New Glasgow Boys,’ a group of young Glasgow School of Art graduates celebrated for repositioning figuration as a legitimate mode of expression in contemporary art, Wiszniewski’s career has spanned a huge range of media and approaches. This exhibition of works on paper highlights his elegant draughtsmanship and virtuosic skill as a printmaker.
Wiszniewski was born in Castlemilk, Glasgow, in 1958. He was the fifth of eight children to his Polish-émigré father and Glaswegian mother. In 1975 Wiszniewski entered the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art, but by the end of his degree visual art had become his main interest. Completing his architecture degree in 1979, he submitted a portfolio to David Donaldson RSA, Head of Painting, who admitted him as a second-year student to the Fine Art course. The tutelage of Alexander Moffat RSA at art school was instrumental in the development of Wiszniewski’s fluid but strongly delineated style. A portrait painter and close friend of the painter John Bellany HRSA (1942-2013), Moffat championed figuration and strong draughtsmanship at a time when abstraction was both commercially and critically popular. In 1985, Moffat curated the exhibition New Image Glasgow at the Third Eye Centre (now the Centre for Contemporary Arts). Moffat included Wiszniewski’s work alongside that of his classmates Steven Campbell, Ken Currie and Peter Howson. The exhibition garnered rave reviews and positioned these young graduates as trailblazers for a new mode of Scottish painting. The renown of these ‘New Glasgow Boys’ was furthered by the Edinburgh Festival exhibition, The Vigorous Imagination, held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1987.
The fame Wiszniewski found in his 20s gave him the confidence to pursue his practice on his own terms, constantly challenging the narrow definition assigned to his work early in his career. The variety of his creative outlay attests to his continual efforts to develop and surprise. Whilst his work is always recognisable, it is entirely unpredictable, and he is often spoken of in the same breath as esteemed Glaswegian polymaths John Byrne RSA and Alasdair Gray. Having started with drawing and painting, Wiszniewski quickly took on new challenges: tapestries and rugs, furniture, murals, stage sets, films and plays. It is hence unsurprising that the particularities of printmaking have always enticed him. The prints on view in this exhibition have all been made at Glasgow Print Studio which, under the directorship of John Mackechnie RSA, has provided both a workspace and encouraging community for Wiszniewski for many years.
Wiszniewski was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1994 and became a full Academician in 2004. His work is widely represented in international collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Setagaya Museum, Tokyo; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Tate Britain, London. He lives and works in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, with his family.
