Born: 1955 Warsaw, Poland
Year of Migration to the UK: 1980
Biography
Painter Antoni Malinowski was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1955. He studied in the Faculty of Painting at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts between 1974 and 1979, after which he moved to London, England in 1980 to continue his education at Chelsea School of Art between 1981 and 1982. Choosing to remain permanently in London, two years later Malinowski began his role as Drawing and Painting Tutor at Chelsea College of Art (where he would teach until 1996), and in 1988 acquired British Citizenship.
Inspired by spirituality, Malinowski’s paintings explore ‘the very nature of light’, and reveal ‘relationships unfolding within its range, triggering an effect which he calls the projection of memory’ (Leśniewska, 2015). Early in his career such spiritual paintings were exhibited in a joint show with fellow Pole, Marysia Lewandowska in the Placed/Displaced show at Chisenhale Gallery, London in 1986. Malinowski’s paintings covered the four walls and floor of a single room, and they incorporated imagery such as a cut-out drawing of a house, cartographic symbols of trees and shelters, and doors and windows. Like the ‘remains of a pagan ritual’, his use of colour and symbology explored notions of home and place, orchestrating the room ‘like an oversized geometrical painting of a classical modernist’ (Chisenhale Archive, 1986).
Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s Malinowski continued to exhibit widely, including in the group show, Open Futures, at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1988, and the British Council show, New Voices, at Todd Gallery, London in 1992. In 1997 Malinowski held his major solo exhibition at London’s Camden Arts Centre, Antoni Malinowski: Synchrony, in which large-scale diptychs ‘instigated a dialogue between physical and non-physical space, between energy and emptiness, becoming a dissolution’ (Camden Art Centre Archives, 1997). It was following this exhibition that Malinowski won the opportunity to spend several months as an Abbey Scholar at the British School at Rome, researching ancient Roman wall paintings. This research experience generated many collaborations with architects on permanent interventions in architecture. For example, Malinowski produced a Vermilion wall painting which spanned three floors at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 2000, for which he spent ‘a few years’ finding the right red pigment (Roberts, 2000); and in 2007 he painted the façade and interior spaces of the Coin Street Community Centre in London. Both projects were carried out in collaboration with Haworth Tompkins Architects, whom he continued to work with on various projects over the following decade. Alongside such projects, Malinowski was a tutor for the Drawing and Colour course at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, a position he held between 2000 and 2019.
In addition to his architectural installations and teaching, Malinowski continued to exhibit in galleries. He developed a particularly close relationship with Gimpel Fils in London, who showed many of his works in solo shows such as Thresholdscapes in 2002 and Antoni Malinowski: New Paintings in 2004. In 2009, he held an important solo exhibition at London's Dulwich Picture Gallery. Entitled The Polish Connection, his exhibition responded to eighteenth century portraits of King Stanislaw August Poniatowski of Poland (one of which is held by the Gallery), and to various questions, such as ‘What if Poland had not been partitioned?’ Painting directly onto the walls of the Gallery for the first time in its history, the then-director of the Gallery, Ian A. C. Dejardin, described Malinowski’s show as ‘a profound, and profoundly beautiful, meditation on the great ‘what if’; a meditation which uses words and dance also, saturating the whole site’ (Dejardin, 2009). Between 2013-18 Malinowski was a visiting tutor for an MA course at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London. In 2018 he produced another large-scale painting installation, Light Triggered, which was curated by Jenni Lomax at Ragged School Museum, London. He worked with the Museum again in 2021, producing Through Which the Light Passes, comprised of tracings of light onto a black surface. Inviting other artists to make interventions, films, and photographs, Malinowski’s piece became the starting point for a larger online exhibition known as the Ragged Art Festival.
Antoni Malinowski continues to live and work in London. His works are found in various UK public collections, including the British Council Collection and Tate.
Related books
- Fiona McLachlan, Colour Beyond the Surface: Art in Architecture (London: Lund Humphries, 2022)
- Anna M. Leśniewska, ‘Colour and Light in the Art of Antoni Malinowski’, in Małgorzata Geron, Jerzy Malinowski & Jan Wiktor Sienkiewicz eds., Art of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland & The Republic of Ireland in 20th-21st Centuries and Polish-British & Irish Art Relations (Toruń: Polish Institute of World Art Studies and Authors and Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, 2015), pp. 317-323
- Ian A. C. Dejardin ed., Antoni Malinowski: The Polish Connection (London: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2009)
- David Buckman, Artists in Britain since 1945 (Bristol: Sansom, 2006)
- Jes Fernie ed., Two Minds: Artists and Architects in Collaboration (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2006), pp. 79-82
- Paul Hills, Antoni Malinowski: New Paintings (London: Gimpel Fils, 2004)
- Mark Rappolt, Antoni Malinowski: Thresholdscapes (London: Gimpel Fils, 2002)
- Hugh Pearman, Antoni Malinowski at De La Warr Pavilion (Bexhill-on-Sea: De La Warr Pavilion, 2001)
- Alison Roberts, 'Arts Diary', The Times, 27 March 2000, p. 20
- Audrey Powell ed., Antoni Malinowski (London: Camden Arts Centre, 1997)
- Robin Kinross, 'The Drawing Room Project', Art Monthly, 1 March 1989, pp. 28-29
Related organisations
- Architectural Association School of Architecture (Drawing and Colour course tutor)
- Chelsea School of Art (Student and Drawing and Painting tutor)
- Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (Visiting tutor for MA course)
- British School at Rome (Abbey Scholarship recipient)
Related web links
- AA School of Architecture Lecture, 2016
- AA School of Architecture Lecture, 2001
- Artist's website
- British Council
- Camden Art Centre Archive, Antoni Malinowski: Synchrony, 1997
- Chisenhale Archive, Placed/Displaced, 1986
- Dulwich Picture Gallery, Antoni Malinowski speaking about The Polish Connection, 2009
- Interview, 2013
- Laurent Delaye
- Mayfair Art Weekend
- Ragged Art, Antoni Malinowski: Through Which the Light Passes, 2021
- Ragged School Museum, Antoni Malinowski: Light Triggered, 2018
- Tate
Selected exhibitions
- Through Which the Light Passes, Ragged Art Festival at The Ragged School Museum, London (2021)
- Light Triggered, Ragged School Museum, London (2018)
- Faith, Slade MA Students and Tutors, Austin Forum, London (2017)
- Spaces Between Things, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London (2016)
- Drawing Room Biennial, London (2015)
- Spectral Flip, Aid and Abet, Cambridge (2012)
- The Polish Connection, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2009)
- Antoni Malinowski: New Paintings, Gimpel Fils, London (2004)
- Tracing the Land, Gimpel Fils, London (2004)
- Thresholdscapes, Gimpel Fils, London (2002)
- Echoing the Pavilion, The Architectural Association, London (2001)
- Royal Court Theatre Project - related work, Gimpel Fils, London (1998)
- What is a Photograph?, Five Years, London (1998)
- Antoni Malinowski: Synchrony, Camden Arts Centre, London (1997)
- London Stories, JE Gallery, Winterthur, Switzerland (1995)
- Moving into View: Recent British Painting, Royal Festival Hall, London (1993)
- New Voices, The British Council Show, Todd Gallery, London (1992)
- Northern Adventures, Camden Arts Centre and St Pancras Station, London (1992)
- Provisional Statements on the Rights of the Citizens, Angel Studios, London (1988)
- Open Futures, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (1988)
- Placed/Displaced, Chisenhale Gallery, London (1986)
