NOCUN

BIO

Paweł Nocuń 

born in 1971.

Lives and works in Warsaw. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Faculty of Painting (1999, with award). Employed as assistant professor in the faculty he graduated from where he has also acquired his doctoral diploma. 

As an artist he mainly practices painting with oil on canvas. He admits being interested in reflection on human feelings, emotions and behaviours – both in general and personal aspects. His choices of motifs and inspirations often include references to and quotations from the global visual heritage. 

The Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw,

the Faculty of Painting:

2016 - adjunct

2014 - PhD degree

2006 – present (employed)

1994 – 1999 (studied)

ARTIST STATEMENT

My painter’s practice is about inquiring into human nature. I feel fascinated with how it escapes banality. I would like my paintings to give people an opportunity to get an insight into sheer diversity of human characters and attitudes. Whenever you sense your own sensitivity deepen while watching them, my artistic goal is achieved. I think there are chances, even in today’s tough times, that persons who are attentive and sensitive are also, simply, pure and decent people. To me, being decent means sensing tenderness and kindness toward oneself, toward other human beings and any other creatures, as well as to the space that surrounds us. 

I mainly paint with oil on canvas, drawing my inspirations from my own experience, but also from phenomena of contemporary as well as past visual culture. In effect, my emotions co-exist in my paintings with quotations from photographs, movies, other artists’ works. From Prince Siddhartha / Buddha, through Diane Arbus, to my Bodyscapes and Facescapes series – this is always about being amazed with extraordinary human nature where the good becomes reflected in evil and atrocity stands right next to beauty. 

WORKS

2021 - 2023 

a series of works entitled “Facescapes” – paintings about human relationships, the untold, hidden in glances 

2018 - 2023 

a series of works entitled "Bodyscapes" - paintings about the need for closeness, tenderness and intimacy 

 2016 - 2018 

a series of works entitled “Canoe path” – paintings about searching for peace and consolation after the turmoil of life  

 2015 - 2016 

a series of four paintings depicting artists 

 2012 - 2015 

a series of works about dreams and imaginations confronted with reality, inspired by the biographies of people such as Arbus, Reinefarth, Kinski, Arendt, Heidegger 

 2007 - 2012 

a series of works about searching for one’s own path, inspired with the life and work of Diane Arbus 

 2005 - 2007 

a series of works about Prince Siddhartha’s decision to quit the life he had lived and set out for a journey in search of truth 

 1999 - 2005 

nudes and paintings with the Buddha's head motif 

 1994 - 1999 

paintings from the period of studies and a diploma series entitled "Heads" 

☞ photo credits of the reproductions:

Norbert Piwowarczyk

Adam Gut