BIOGRAPHY



GREGOR ZIOLKOWSKI
honored with the title Professor of Arts and Membership (Associated Academician)
of Accademia Internazionale "Greci-Marino",
Accademia Del Verbano di Lettere, Arti, Scienze (Vinzaglio / Italy)


Born 1950 in Wroclaw / Poland. 1964-1969 attended State High School of Fine Arts in Wroclaw (Panstwowe Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych) - Painting Workshop under Prof. Krzeslawa Maliszewska and Janina Zemojtel.
1969-1972 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw (Panstwowa Wyzsza Szkola Sztuk Plastycznych) - Painting Workshop with such polish artists as Prof: Józef Halas, Wladyslaw Hasior and Marian Pozniak. Sculpture studied under prof. Lucja Skomorowska-Wilimowska who was a student of the famous Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski.
At this time are created watercolor and oil paintings - landscapes and still lifes painted in the impressionistic style.
Since 1984 domiciled in Ratingen / Germany. By and by the realistic-impressionistic painting turns into surrealism, whereas a couple of oil pastels come into existence beside the oil paintings, accompanied by deeper themes and ideas.
The works are characterized by not trite, deep colours and mystical light. Painted freely, often with broader brush, they leave for the viewer a lot of space to his own interpretation. He gets the opportunity to write own content in the work thanks to this he receives it more intensely and personally. The content of the pictures is given in a very painterly way, without going into unnecessary details - this feature is a remnant of the early impressionist paintings. It remains just that, what is necessary to give the clear message. Author defines his style of painting as a "romantic surrealism". It differs from other directions of surrealism such as fantastic or abstract surrealism. The aim is to express the feelings and thoughts without breaking the rationality. This allows the feet on the ground while swing in the clouds – so be awake and dream at the same time. A small amount of symbols is a complement to the creative process, which is an attempt to look at each other and the surroundings from a different perspective as well as to provoke thinking. Each work contains an emotional charge. Participation in many national and international exhibitions and won awards are an encouragement to continue the chosen way.
The great promotion is the fact, that some publishing houses have used his works as teaching materials in school books - eg. "Philosophieren in der Oberstufe" (Philosophy of a higher level) published by Schoeningh / Germany, "Allemand Mitreden" published by Hachette Paris / France and "A Sociologia em sala de aula" (Sociology in the classroom) published in Brasil and Portugal.
Some of the works are privately owned in the USA, Sweden, France, Germany, Holland and Poland.
Since 2004 follow invitations to international biennials and exhibitions - Paris, London, Montreal, Salzburg, Strasbourg, Florence, Venice, Barcelona, Cremona...
Apart from painting, he also deals with music and poetry. He has written nearly 200 songs, most of them to his own lyrics - some of them can be listened on YouTube. He arranges and performs all his songs himself. The song "A jak sobie wieczorem" to the poem by Julian Tuwim was sung 1970 at the Wroclaw Song Fair - Wroclaw Spring ´70.
He also composed several instrumental pieces for organ and piano. He plays piano, electric and classical guitar and does his own guitar arrangements of classical, pop and folk songs. Some of his guitar performances of polish folk songs were used 2019 for the TV show of the Group "Proscenium" from Cracow as well as by the Polish Dance Group from Wronki/Poland.
He wrote about 250 poems and lyrics. Some of the poems were published in the polish journal "Aspekty" appearing 1998 in Germany. For the poem "Sucha galaz" (The Dry Branch) he received an award at the 7th International Immigrant Poets Competition 2001 in Clearwater / USA. Since 2019 he is included in the register of the Polish Song Library (Biblioteka Polskiej Piosenki).