Tomek Setowski is a Polish man with a very unique and recognizable art style. He is 58 years old and still resides in Poland. Mr. Setowski not only fits into our gallery but is one of the artists that launched the idea of magical realism. Originally thought of as a surrealism artist, Tomek transformed the way people viewed his artwork based on his one of a kind and never before seen style of art. Tomek was happy to see his art identity shift from surrealist to a magical/ fantastic realism artist. He knew that his work offered more and brought new things to the table which is what triggered people to categorize him separately from surrealism artists. Magical realism embodies imagination and brings to life what we perceive as impossible or fantasy. This is what Tomek Setowski’s goal is when painting, he takes the real and transforms it into the unreal while also blending reality with fiction.

       Tomek Setowski was born in 1961 in Czestochowa, Poland on the Kraków-Czestochowa Jurassic Highland Chain. As a child, he was characterized as having extraordinary sensitivity. This sparked his love for art and painting, leading him to complete his first-ever painting at the age of three. From then on, his love for art continued to grow and eventually, he enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Czestochowa Pedagogical University where he triumphantly earned his master’s degree. I say this because he often got into tense disagreements with professors, going against the grain due to his unique art style. He soon became a world-renowned artist appearing in galleries across the globe and was at the forefront of a new art style called magical realism.

       At first glance, Tomek Setowski’s artwork seems complicated. There is so much going on with so many things happening. Minute details may be invisible at first, only to realize them after looking at his pieces for 10 minutes or on multiple occasions. Setowski says that sensitivity and patience are needed to understand his paintings. His creations almost always have a humanoid presence with elaborate architecture. He manages to blend the two, taking inspiration from his dreams and the world he encounters around him. That’s why his work his labeled as magical realism. He takes everyday things and combines them, whether it be in the sky or underwater he curates a vision of fantasy. “His paintings have a child-like disposition but captivate viewers who stop to inspect the smaller images that have collaged themselves on to the larger canvas.” He focuses mainly on oil on canvas paintings but occasionally has branched off to create magical drawings and sculptures. 

       The concepts presented in his art are hard to realize. Even though art is subjective, the viewers who pay close attention to his work notice subtle clues as to what Tomek may be trying to showcase in his art. An example of this is in one of his paintings, a man is releasing a balloon with the word “love” on it to a woman at the top of a castle. For casual viewers, this seems to be a simple love story message but to those who took their time to dissect the painting saw that the woman was holding a pin. This changes the story of the piece completely and this can go for all his paintings. Another thing to look out for in his artwork is clocks. They are littered everywhere in his work because he deeply appreciates the concept of time and has respect for the seemingly limited amount of it so he tributes this in his pieces. His one of a kind style “immortalizes the enchantment of fairy-tale characters, ravishing women and mysterious manifestations of his dreams.”  According to Mr. Setowski, he believes his style has remained constant but his themes have changed over time.