BIO

Raf Tarnawski was born in Wroclaw, Poland. At ten years old, he printed his first photographs, and exhibited his graphic works while still in high school in Walbrzych, Poland.
After completing the graphics school in Lund, Sweden, Raf worked for many years as a Creative Director for many international advertising agencies, all the while creating his own artwork in photography, graphics, painting, ceramics and design. His own first painting exhibit took place in Eslov, Sweden, in the late 1980’s. 
In 2006 Raf started to study sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw, Poland, in professor P. Gawron’s studio. Since then, he has presented his sculptures at individual and joint exhibits in Poland, Germany, France, Taiwan, Italy and Sweden.

 

Art is perceived as a means of communication. A universal form of communication, on a higher plane. The plane of aesthetics and beauty – that ethereal entity that is the basis of our universe and which lends meaning to our existence.

Exhibitions

2007 – Individual  Exhibition, Warsaw, Poland
2008 – Individual Exhibition, SAAB Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2009 – Individual Exhibition, Gallery Art-Tu, Warsaw, Poland
2012 – Exhibition Hotell Bristol, Warsaw, Poland
2012 – Galleri Lund, Sweden
2013 – Gallerii Soho, Warsaw, Poland
2013 – Individual Exhibition, Private Gallery, Paris, France 
2013 – Individual Exhibition, Gallery Berg, Warsaw, Poland
2013 – Individual Exhibition, Private Gallery Castle in Sulisław, Poland
2014 – Private Gallery Stockholm, Sweden
2014 – Art Gallery Grand Theatre, Warsaw, Poland
2014 – Gallery Zatoka Sztuki, Poland
2016 – Art Gallery  ZPP, Warsaw, Poland
2016 – Exhibition Hamburg, Germany
2016 – ART-Revolution, Taipei, Taiwan
2017 – Gallery Zatoka Sztuki, Poland
2017 – Gallery Fort Mokotów, Poland
2017 – X-Power Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 – Gallery Zatoka Sztuki, Poland
2018 – Art Gallery Praga Południe Warsaw, Poland
2018 – Gallery Art Sarapata – Warsaw Poland
2018 – ART2FCannes – France
2018 – Blank Wall Gallery – Greece (photography)
2018 – Temple of Dreams – Warsaw
2018 – Art Gallery “Impersja” – Duszniki Zdrój
2019 – Gallery Zatoka Sztuki, Poland
2019 – Art Gallery 022, Warsaw, Poland
2019 – Art Gallery Bell Arte, Warsaw, Poland
2019 – Gallery Fyra Arstider – Stockholm, Sweden
2019 – Galerie Just Jaeckin – Paris, France
2020 – Gallery DAP, Warsaw, Poland
2020 – BORDERS Festival – Venice
2021 – Galeria DAP, Warszawa, Polska
2021 – Galeria 3one33, Warsaw, Poland
2021 – Finalist in LICC’s Official Selection London International Creative Competition
2022 – Wall Space Gallery – Warsaw, Poland
2022 – Station of Art Gallery, Warszawa, Polska
2022 – Art Basel Mimi, USA
2023 – ZPP, Warsaw, Poland
2023 – Winn Slavin Fine Art, Beverly Hills, USA

Why do I make sculptures…

We live in a world that changes every day, every minut and every second. We are constantly bombarded with a millions of impressions and images, opinions and suggestions. Everything around us is trying to outshout everyone else. This flow of information on all channels of our senses means that we either close ourselves or trying to grasp a bit of everyone we find ourselves in a total chaos full of devalued values. We lose orientation and no applications on our phones can help us – our brain cells are desperately trying to sort out the incoming impulses.
For centuries, art was the solution that showed us how to live and helped us to find fixed values in this chotic world.
I’m trying to bring order. I create the lightening rod to diffuse stress and an escape route from daily desolation.
My sculptures are vessels thatI fill with emotions and desires: the joy of encounter, heat of the setting sun, or yearning for what might be.
They always contain a part of myself, a fragment of my life. 
Facing this captured moment and emotion, you are invited to enter another dimension, one free of the chaos of the onrushing reality.
It’s where you have a chance to discover harmony and distance yourself from the surrounding world.
I want to bring order in our fillings and understanding of basic values that comes from aesthetics and beauty.
I would like to show the most important and fundamental part of our world – the man. The human body with its natural emotions and beauty.