Paweł Śliwiński (b. 1984) is a painter and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In the early stages of his career, he was associated with the “Tired of Reality” movement, a group of artists who, at the turn of the decades, restored painting’s role as a medium of introspection and emotional resonance, in opposition to the dominant political-conceptual strategies of the time.
Śliwiński has never followed a linear path of stylistic development. His painting practice is rooted in the parallel coexistence of diverse formal languages, from grotesque, distorted figuration to works that verge on pure abstraction. He often works in small formats, particularly on paper, treating them as a space for emotional notations, liminal states, and flickering transitions. Recurring motifs of faces, eyes, and blurred figures appear in moods of melancholy, psychological tension, hallucinatory ornamentation, or lyrical distortion.
His works do not construct narratives. They suspend gesture and state, probing the threshold between form and its disappearance. The painting becomes a site of presence that persists despite dissolution and transience. Śliwiński’s sensibility does not seek formal uniformity, but rather coherence in emotional attunement.
The artist’s works are held in, among others, the collections of the National Museum in Gdańsk, the ING Polish Art Foundation, and the Zabludowicz Collection in London. In 2014, he was featured in the international publication 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson). He lives and works in Warsaw

Solo exhibitions