tomasz walenta

tomasz walenta is a polish-canadian artist, cartoonist and illustrator ................................................................................................................................................................

tomasz walenta

is a polish-canadian artist, cartoonist and illustrator,
working as a freelancer from warsaw, poland.
his beautiful, old-school illustrations combine economy of
line and playful wit.
his art, equally at home on posters, magazine pages
and gallery walls, cannot be confined to a single category
or movement. walenta reacts to what he perceives as the
hypocrisy and the superficiality of today's society -
in a similar way as cartoonists such as saul steinberg and
tomi ungerer dissected modern life and its foibles.
in a few succinct and graceful lines,
tomasz walenta is joyfully critical of the world around him.

about his work...
‘in my illustrations I try to use the language of posters,
the conceptual non narrative way of expressing an idea.
I find much of my inspiration in the artwork of polish posters
because of their imagery and subtle, yet powerful comments
on the political and social climate in communist poland.
when I work with a subject that has a political or social
dimension, I try to give it a subjective view, to express my
opinion on the matter.
for me illustration is interpretation, not only on a formal
level but also on an ideological one.’

which graphic artists and illustrators do you
appreciate the work of?
’saul steinberg - I like his work very much, his fingerprint
faced man makes me jealous ;)
I like savignac, tomi ungerer, paul rand, brad holland,
paula sher, luba lukova, yang liu, henryk tomaszewski,
shigeo fukuda, gérard paris-clavel, stefan sagmeister,
uwe loesh, lech majewski, mieczyslaw gorowski,
michal batory, sebastian kubica, lino, istvan orosz,
david tartakover, wieslaw walkucki, franciszek starowiejski,
james victore, alejandro magallanes and all the others I
forgot to mention, for whom ideas are at the source of
their work.’

---
tomasz walenta
was born 15.02.1974.
he studied at the university of quebec in montreal before
returning to his homeland in poland where he completed
his masters degree in graphic design in 1999 at the academy
of fine arts in warsaw.

walenta cooperates with numerous newspapers and
cultural institutions, among them the new york times,
the washington post, the boston globe, the wall street journal,
new-york magazine, time magazine, the L.A. times,
the progressive, the chicago tribune, forbes magazine,
the chicago reader, the deal, the new republic magazine,
yale medical, ecumen medical, princeton alumni weekly, etc.

he lectured and held workshops at the university of quebec
in montreal, at the université laval, at the école intuit lab
and the atelier autograf in paris.

awards
- applied arts illustration annual, 2004
- american illustration, 2003
- applied arts illustration annual, 2003
- lux québec, 2003
- grafika, 2002

tomasz walenta is represented by marzena torzecka,
marlena agency in new york.

http://www.tomaszwalenta.com
http://www.tomwalt.com
http://www.marlenaagency.com