"The insecurities of the city" etching, aquatint, framed | |
| size | 54 x 64.5 x 3.5 cm |
In 1976, Jacek Sroka began his studies at the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He chose Mieczyslaw Wejman's copperplate studio as his main specialization, and additionally drawing under Adam Hoffman and painting under Jan Świderski. This mixture of authorities and various inspirations helped him choose his artistic path, in which metaphorical thinking and intellectual analysis were enriched by an expressive, but always color-sensitive form. However, it is the break from the Academy that will account for the originality of his early works and their unbridled "wildness," breaking aesthetic norms. The artist defended his diploma in 1981 and remained at the Academy as an assistant in the intaglio studio, and then in the copperplate studio, until 1989. At that time he participated in the Independent Culture movement, designing covers for underground publications.
In 1985, Sroka held his first exhibition - at the Gologórski and Rostworowski Gallery in Cracow. From the mid-1980s, the artist collaborated with Berlin's Asperger Gallery and Warsaw's Gallery of Graphics and Posters. At the end of the decade, he established a cooperation with Jan Fejkiel(Krakow's Art Gallery, Jan Fejkiel Gallery), which continues to this day. In 2002 he received the Witold Wojtkiewicz Award. His work to date was shown in a retrospective exhibition of graphic and painting works, which took place in 2008 at the National Museum in Cracow.
