Untitled, from the Star/Cross series

Andrzej Rafałowicz (b. 1981, Sokółka, Poland) is a painter, visual artist, and educator based in Wrocław, Poland. Born in the region of Podlasie, near the border with what was then the Byelorussian SSR, he grew up in a place shaped by multiple cultural, religious, and historical influences, and came of age during Poland’s post-1989 transformation. This experience of being suspended between East and West informs his artistic practice, which is rooted in the domain of the painterly sign. Rafałowicz works with adapted symbols, visual codes, and painterly forms that move between abstraction and semi-abstraction, drawing from a range of visual languages, including icon painting and contemporary visual culture, as well as from personal memory, cultural identity, and the instability of contemporary experience. In his paintings, signs often function as provisional emblems — open forms through which questions of belonging, grief, corporeality, spirituality, and collective identity can be approached. He holds an MFA in Painting and a PhD in Fine Art from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, where he is an Assistant Professor and runs the 12th Painting Studio. His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions and residency programmes in Poland and internationally.