Tree by the Lake Painting

Andrzej Koston began his artistic career as a caricaturist. The native Pole drew as a child and added figures to his schoolbooks, giving them cheeky comments. After studying film, he worked as a camera operator and directed his own films, many of which were experimental. Alongside this, he worked as an illustrator and published his work in leading German newspapers and magazines. In Andrzej Koston's paintings, one can find experiences he made as a filmmaker, photographer, illustrator, and caricaturist. His images appear like film stills hanging on the wall. They are snapshots of an animation that is set in motion by the audience. Koston's images have a high recognition value. They are the work of an ironic realist who accompanies the world and its creatures with a benevolent look, often making people smile and think by conveying a subtle message: Look closely, we are all not perfect and will never be, despite all efforts. It is a unique art universe that Andrzej Koston has been populating with unmistakable figures for over 20 years. Mysterious, eerie, absurd and clown-like are the images. They elude a clear interpretation, even though what they depict is familiar and deja-vu-like. It is a panopticon, an oil-figure cabinet, where the boundaries between dream and nightmare, reality and fantasy, tragedy and comedy melt together.