Marcin Rząsa was born in 1965 in Zakopane. He attended the Antoni Kenar Art High School in Zakopane and later studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and then at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, where he trained in the studio of Professor Jan Kucz. After graduating in 1991 under the direction of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski, he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, in the studio of Jozef Jankovic.

Marcin Rząsa has lived and worked in Zakopane for most of his life. He has run the sculpture gallery of his late father Antoni Rząsa at their family house at 16, Bogdańskiego Street since 1986. The gallery is also a venue where artworks of contemporary artists are presented. Though Rząsa is the son of a sculptor, and thus has art in his blood, he does not refer to his father's creations, rather he features his own unique style. His small wooden figurines, which make one think of ancient orants, are Rząsa's signature mark. Normally, he carves figures that stand alone, but sometimes they become characters in a scene. In spite of his use of pared-down means of expression, each of the sculptures has its individual character and is one of a kind.

Marcin Rząsa's artworks have been displayed at Polish Cultural Institutes in Berlin, Bratislava and Rome, as well as in BWA galleries in Szczecin, Olsztyn, Zakopane, Suwałki, Gorlice, at the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsk, and other venues in Warsaw, Krakow, Sopot, Szydłowiec, Zutphen (Holland), Rosenheim (Germany), Kežmarok (Slovakia). He has also taken part in plein-air workshops in Taylla (Hungary), Cap Arcona (Germany), Zakopane, Gorlice, Warsaw, and Lindern (Germany).

The present exhibition constitutes, in a sense, a symbolic act. Marcin Rząsa grew up with the inspiring presence of Władysław Hasior's sculptures, and saw how Hasior's sculptures were masterfully created. So, it is also a journey deep inside himself, into the depths of his memories in order to meet his sculptor hero.
 

(Photo: Magda Ciszewska-Rząsa)