Michał Misiak is a contemporary Polish visual artist, working primarily with painting, drawing, and digital animation. His primary practice is non-representational painting, based on the language of geometry. Michał Misiak's signature medium is the line—rhythmically repeated, creating dense visual structures. A key aspect of his art is the pursuit of harmony, order, and the universal principles that govern reality. Inspired by Pythagorean philosophy and music—especially its structure and rhythm—Misiak's paintings have an almost meditative character. The artist does not strive for a literal translation of music into imagery, but rather to capture analogous qualities: rhythm, tension, and harmony. The repetition in the creative process and the concentration accompanying the construction of a composition lead both the artist and the viewer to an experience of contemplation. Light, space, and color play a special role in his works, which—though subordinated to geometric rigor—create an impression of immateriality and subtle vibration. His work can be seen as an attempt to transcend the materiality of image and reach a spiritual dimension. Thanks to his consistently developed formal language, Michał Misiak is one of the contemporary artists continuing and creatively reinterpreting the tradition of geometric abstraction, giving it a reflective and contemplative dimension.
Michał Misiak was born in 1973 in Tarnów. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he graduated with distinction in 1999. He is currently associated with the Academy as a lecturer, running the Drawing and Painting Studio at the Faculty of Interior Design. Since the late 1990s, Misiak's work has consistently developed, encompassing 31 solo exhibitions and participation in numerous group presentations in Poland and abroad. The artist has received numerous awards and scholarships, and his works are included in institutional and private collections, including the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, the Mazovian Centre for Contemporary Art Elektrownia in Radom, Kulturhistorisches Museum Gorlitz (Germany), Museum Jerke in Recklinghausen (Germany).
Selected group exhibitions
2025 - "Outlines of Presence", wystawa grupy A2, Galeria Bielska BWA, Bielsko - Biała, Poland
2025 - "On the Limits of Perception", Vasarely Museum, Budapeszt, Hungary
2025 - "Geometry of Emotion", GDM Contemporary, Ostrava, Czech Republic
2024 - "Geometria ruchu", IMO gallery, Stary Sącz, Poland
2024 - "Geometry and Memory", MCSW Elektrownia, Radom, Poland
2024 - "Layer | Level | Dimension", No art space, Kraków, Poland
2023 - "Kunstspektrale – Quadratur des Kreises", Schloss Königshain, Germany
2023 – "Konkret & Angelehnt Konkret exhibition. Malerei aus Polen – Objekte aus NRW", Verein für aktuelle Kunst/Ruhrgebiet e.V. , Oberhausen, Germany
2022 - "Connection Bożena", Syker Vorwerk, Centre for Contemporary Art, Syke, Germany
2021 - "The language of geometry – the permanence of art",
BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art, Katowice, Poland
2019 - "Direction Geometry", Krakauer Haus, Nuremberg, Germany.
2019 - "Multiple Orders. From Cybis to Strzemiński". Collection of Grażyna and Jacek Łozowski. State Art Gallery in Sopot.
2019 - "Big Circle", M17 Contemporary Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine.
2018 - "Abstrakce.pl – Abstraction in Polish painting 1945–2017", Museum of Contemporary Art, Olomouc, Czech Republic
2017 - "Art and timeless values", MCSW Elektrownia, Radom
2016 - "Polish line", Csikász galéria, Veszprém, Hungary
2015 - "The language of geometry – half a century of transformations", MCSW Elektrownia, Radom
2011 - Collection of Bożena Kowalska, BWA Katowice
2009 - "Multiplicity in unity – Polish woodcut after 1900", District Museum, Bydgoszcz
2009 - "Forecasts for Art", XX1 Gallery, Warsaw
2006 - "In the circle of geometry", Szyperska Gallery, Poznan
2000 - Krakow International Print Triennial - Recommendations, Young Polish Graphics, Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow
Selected solo exhibitions
2024 - "Asymmetric", odNowa gallery, Academy of Fine Arts, Łodź, Poland
2023 - "Simple Complexity", Molski gallery&collection, Poznań, Poland
2021 - "Frequencies", Dystans gallery, Kraków, Poland
2019 - "Fluctuations", Mia Art Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
2018 - "Variable" alongside Olga Ząbroń , JIL, Warszawa, Poland
2018 - "Fluctuations of Balance", Korekta gallery, Warszawa, Poland
2015- „Vibrations” - alongside Gerhard Birkhofer, Haus der Modernen Kunst, Staufen, Germany
2014- "Two-dimensional relativity", Chłodna 20 gallery, Suwałki, Poland
2013- "Dynamic structures", Socato gallery, Wrocław, Poland
2008- "Surface – Space – Depth", Sagan gallery, Essen, Germany
2006- „Farbschwingungen” – Galerie Birkhofer, Gottenheim, Germany
2005- „Oscillations”, Anya Tish gallery, Houston, USA
Selected awards and honourable mentions
2012 – 24th Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting, Szczecin
(Format quarterly award)
2008 – VI Triennale of Polish Contemporary Drawing, Lubaczów (award)
2005 – 1st Biennial of Painting "Artefakt", Łódź (1st prize)
2005 – 5th Polish Contemporary Drawing Triennial, Lubaczów (Grand Prix)
2004 – 20th Festival of Polish Contemporary Painting "Configuration",
Szczecin (honourable mention)
2004 – Music in Painting, Obok Gallery, Tychy (2nd prize)
2003 – Creative Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National
Heritage of the Republic of Poland
2002 – Music in Painting, Obok Gallery, Tychy (1st prize)
2001 – Creative Scholarship of the City of Cracow