Art & Life with Bartosz Beda

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bartosz Beda.

Bartosz, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I was born in Poland, and I have been interested in drawing and painting since I was seven years old. I went to a fine arts secondary school in Poland that taught me everything I know about traditional drawing and painting. A couple of years later, I moved to the UK and enrolled in a painting course at Manchester Metropolitan University. At the Manchester School of Art, I learned a conceptual approach to painting, as well as the concept of painting itself. After I graduated, I began showing my work in the UK and internationally. I also received a scholarship to the Dresden Academy of Art, the same academy where Gerhard Richter was studying. Around that time, I had solo exhibitions in Madrid, Spain, and Colombia, as well as in the UK. I was also included in many group exhibitions. I won a few national competitions in the UK that allow me to become a full-time artist. At the end of 2013, I moved to the United States. Recently I relocated to Dallas, Texas, where I’ve lived for the past seven months.

Besides painting, I am also interested in other mediums like sculpture and film. Before my time at the Manchester School of Art, I worked on an animation that received an Oscar in 2008. I also create sculpture installations as part of my painting practice.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My art is for people—thanks to them, my art receives notice and appreciation. I can’t imagine making art only for myself.

My life is about painting. All I do is for the purpose of creating art. What I make, create, or paint is for the sake of art.

Sometimes I make art because I want to make it. It is something that I’ve done since I was a kid. My life’s focus is art. That’s a pretty good picture of what inspires me to do it. I’m inspired by different social and political aspects that I embed in my work. As of now, I’m at work on two pieces for solo exhibitions that will take place in the summer. One of the displays is in the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts in Texas. For this exhibition, I am working on paintings that are inspired by the myth of Sisyphus. As we all know, the story is about work that never stops, and work that repeats itself in the same manner. But I am not painting this subject literally. All the works are inspired by old yearbooks that I found while I was in Fulton for my solo exhibition. These paintings are a series of portraits that represent a distortion of the face, as well as things that cannot be seen with the eye. They include the Sisyphean pain of the soul and strain on the body brought about by social interaction.

For my second exhibition, which will take place at the Hopkins Center for the Arts, I plan to make paintings that will focus on my green color and nature. For the first time, I don’t want to focus on politics or anything directly impacted by it. I want to concentrate on organic forms that represent calmness, meditation, and time.

In your view, what is the biggest issue artists have to deal with?
I think that the biggest challenge that artists face today is impatience. We don’t give ourselves time to develop paintings, and we don’t take time off from rushing. As a result, it’s a challenge to give ourselves the time and space to daydream. Furthermore, today’s artists have to juggle both art and the business of it.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My work is available at Zebra One Gallery in London or on Artsy, as well as on the Execute Project. During the summer, my work will also be available through the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in Texas as well as at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. For these exhibitions, I’ll be presenting a new body of work. You can also visit my website, bartoszbeda.com.

You can follow me on Instagram for more updates on what I’m currently working on in the studio.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bartoszbeda.com/
• Email: info@bartoszbeda.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bartoszbeda/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bartoszbeda/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bartoszbeda
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/bartoszbeda

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