PIOTR SZYHALSKI

ONE ART

September 5 - October 28, 2001
Contact Sheet 113


Visual artist Piotr Szyhalski emigrated from his native Poland in 1990 where he studied illustration, poster design, and photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Poznan. Political propaganda in every form was quite ubiquitous in Poland, which at the end of the second World War found itself under the influence of the Soviet Union. Profoundly affected by this imagery, which was so pervasive in his culture, Szyhalski began to create photographs, posters, and murals in the style of propaganda imagery, applying the very skills in which he was trained. Using original and found imagery, combined with a finely honed skill of design and typography, Szyhalski began to construct new works of visual propaganda, ones in which he was in control of the message that was being communicated.

The exhibition and catalogue One Art spans a twelve year period of Szyhalski's work with the intention of showing a progression of the artist's work as a designer, photographer, and propagandist. In recent years, Szyhalski has created new works designed specifically for the computer and the internet that were incorporated into the design of this exhibition.