Ryszard Szozda, Riders, 2021

oil, canvas, 100 x 130 cm signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse: RIDERS/ RIDERS/OLEJ/OIL/130 x 100// RYSZARD SZOZDA/2021

Ryszard Szozda, born in 1976 in Cracow, Poland.
Graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow in 2001. From 1999 to 2000 he studied at the Department of Photography at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Since 2002 he has been living and working in Warsaw.

In his works he explores themes related to symbolic violence, the threat of racism, totalitarianism or war present in the contemporary iconosphere and powerlessness against them.

Winner of the Grand Prize of the 13th Arte Laguna Prize for his triptych "Test #03" in 2019 in Venice. Co-creator and director of the documentary "Don't pay me" about the negation of the conventional priority of accumulating money and goods.
Co-editor of the program "Birds and Ornithologists" about contemporary art on the online radio project Radio Voices.
The painting "Riders" is based on an archival photograph from the early 20th century (collection of Ludwig Bettman), showing Ku Klux Klan "knights" posing on horseback in a night scene. The KKK, while an icon of violence, proclaims that it is building a better society for all - arguing that it is not a hate group, but a love group. Violence rooted in love, exclusion to fight for goodness, stigma to defend moral values is immune to time, culture or place. Violence is universal and enduring, it is part of our nature: by explaining it and denying it we defend our idealized image, denying what is natural and obvious and the Ku Klux Klan, enduring unwaveringly for more than 150 years, makes us all its members.
Exhibitions:
2022: "Danger close" (solo exhibition), Piękna Gallery, Warsaw.

2021:
"Strictly commercial" (group exhibition), F.A.I.T Gallery, Krakow.

2020:
"Again" (solo exhibition), Nanazenit Gallery, Warsaw.

2019:
"Cracow Art Salon 2019" (group exhibition), Palace of Art in Krakow

"13th Arte Laguna Prize" (group exhibition), Arsenal, Venice

2018:
"Lito ASP KRK - Studio of Lithography of the Academy of Fine Arts Cracow".
(group exhibition), Academy Gallery in Bronowice, Cracow

Krakow Salon of Art 2018 (group exhibition), Palace of Art, Krakow

2017:
"Black, white, colored" (solo exhibition),UV21 Gallery, Warsaw

"I'm No Longer a Dog" / "I'm no longer a dog" (group exhibition), Silesian Museum in Katowice, Poland

"Monsters: They are among us" (group exhibition), Blank Space Gallery, Oslo, Norway

"Birds and Ornithologists" (group exhibition), F.A.I.T. Gallery in Cracow, Poland.

2007:
"Encounters in the City" (group exhibition), Palace of Art in Krakow.

2005:
"Man and Woman" (group exhibition), Palace of Art in Krakow

2004:
"Twins" (solo exhibition), Sheik Yerbouti Gallery, Cracow.

2003:
"All Tommorow's Parties" (solo exhibition), Sheik Yerbouti Gallery, Cracow.

2001:
"Lithographs" (solo exhibition), PWST Gallery, Cracow

"Photography without a Past" (group exhibition), Museum of the History of Photography, Cracow

2000:
"Sig Sauer" (solo exhibition), Galeria Otwarta, Krakow

"American visa" (individual exhibition), Galeria Otwarta in Krakow

"Krakov Praha 2000" (group exhibition), Polish Institute, Prague, Czech Republic