Jacek Yerka, EARLY BRIDGE, 2023

60,0 x 51,0 cm - acrylic, canvas signed p. d.: YERKA 23

signature on the reverse on the lower loom strip: JACEK | YERKA, next to: >> EVENING BREEZE<< | ACRYLIC 2023



I was born in a tenement house. Grim and neglected. In an apartment inhabited by three families. With one dark bathroom and an extra kitchen in the corridor without ventilation. Instead, there was a kitchen staircase and a stove in every room. I lived there for the first eight years of my life. I still remember the unmistakable smell of the stairwell, the names of all the neighbors - those on the first floor raised foxes for fur in the house. The level of chad in the winter air in the yard, was similar to that in London in 1952, when several thousand people died from asphyxiation.


Jacek Yerka (Toruń 1952, lives near Toruń) graduated in 1976 from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He specialized in graphic arts. In the first years after graduation, he exhibited posters, including at the Biennale of Polish Poster in Katowice in 1977 and 1979, international biennials in Lahti and Warsaw, and others. Since 1980 he has devoted himself entirely to painting. Relying on a precise pictorial technique modeled on the old masters (Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch), but above all on his own boundless imagination, he creates surreal compositions, especially admired by lovers of fantasy in all varieties. He inspired, for example, fantasy author Harlan Ellison to write 30 short stories, which, along with Yerka's paintings, made up the publication titled. "Mind Fields." The same American publishing house "Morpheus International" published the album "The Fantastic Art of Jacek Yerka". In 1995 the artist was awarded the prestigious World Fantasy Award for best artist. He exhibits at home and abroad (in Germany, France, the USA and others), being a respected representative of the fantastic art trend. He collaborated in the production of the American film "Strawberry Fields," where the images were to be accompanied by Beatles music.