The work of Andrzej Jackowski (born 1947, North Wales) is largely autobiographical, based on his early childhood memories, recollections of a family history in Poland and the feeling of alienation and enclosure that these experiences roused. Using powerful, insistent images from his past he explores ideas of human memory and psyche, both on a personal and more collective level. 'When I was eleven years old I moved with my parents to London from a refugee camp in the north of England - where we had lived in huts made out of wood and felt covered in tar. We lived with my half-brother who was a photographer - when I was fourteen my parents separated, about the same time I painted a self-portrait and made a decision to become a painter.'
'It has been Jackowski's fate to be dealt, in childhood, a very specific experience. When he redisvoered in his 30s the imagery of the wooden barracks, it took on a resonance far larger than any autobiographical or local predicament. His drawings and paintings now became imbued with some of the defining events of modern European history: the concentration camps; the war and its displacment of populations; the tragic fate of Eastern Europe. Jackowski's world of wooden slats testifies to a colletive experience of loss.....However personal or private Jackowski's impetus may have been in origin, he ended up, almost despite himself, creating a kind of contemporary "history painting" '. (Timothy Hyman)
Andrzej Jackowski was Professor of Painting at the University of Brighton for many years. He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. His work is represented in many public art collections including Arts Council; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; British Council; British Museum, London; Fogg Art Museum, University of Harvard, USA; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.