Marcin Kołpanowicz (Kolpan)

Marcin Kołpanowicz (Kolpan). Born 19 November 1963 in Kraków. His father, Andrzej Kołpanowicz, was a painter, one of the precursors of the Polish school of fantastic realism. His mother is also a painter; she lives in Ethiopia, where she creates contemporary sacral painting inspired by the Coptic icon.

From 1982 to 1987 he studied at the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He defended his diploma in painting in 1987 in the studio of Professor Stanisław Rodziński and Zbylut Grzywacz. Since then he has organised more than 30 solo exhibitions in Poland, Germany, France, Austria and the USA, and has taken part in numerous group shows including the most important international exhibitions of fantastic realism and the Salon de Paris in 2017, 2025 and 2026.

Marcin Kołpanowicz works in metaphorical oil and pastel painting, combining unbridled imagination, poetic metaphor and a paradoxical sense of humour. He is also the author of portraits, posters and book illustrations.

Kołpanowicz's paintings have appeared in the TVP series "Siedlisko" directed by Janusz Majewski (Anna Dymna painted his "flying steam locomotive"), on book covers (among others Waldemar Łysiak's "Kielich", Arkadiusz Pacholski's "Brulion paryski", Monika Bartoszewicz's "Festung Europa", Marek Sołtysik's "Znak miłości", Elżbieta Zechenter-Spławińska's "Notatki i sny" and numerous volumes of poetry). His paintings have been included in middle- and high-school textbooks, used in the 2018 Polish secondary-school final examination, and reproduced on University of California, Berkeley posters. The artist has executed the Stations of the Cross in the church of St Catherine of Alexandria in Tenczynek near Kraków, the beatification painting of Sister Marta Wiecka in Snyatyn (Ukraine), and the altarpiece and fresco in the John Paul II "Be Not Afraid" Centre in Kraków-Łagiewniki.

Alongside painting, Marcin Kołpanowicz pursues literary and journalistic work: since 2012 he has written essays and reviews for the quarterly "Artysta i Sztuka" and travel pieces for the monthly "Poznaj Świat"; he has also published reviews and texts on art in the quarterly "Bliza". In 2016 he released the album "Marcin Kołpanowicz – Malarstwo / Painting".