Rafał Olbiński (born 1943, Kielce), "The Accidental Lover"

Condition
work mounted in a passe-partout

Biography
Rafał Olbiński was born and studied in Poland, where he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. In 1981, he emigrated to the United States and soon became a recognized painter, illustrator, designer, and set designer. In recent years, he has also become a sculptor.
He has received over 150 awards for his work, including gold and silver medals from the Art Directors Club in New York and gold and silver medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Los Angeles.
From 1983 to 1988, he was a lecturer at Temple University in Philadelphia, and from 1987 to 2001, he taught at the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York.
In 1994, he received the international Oscar for the Most Significant Poster of the Year, the Prix Savignac in Paris. That same year, he received an award from Creative Review magazine in London for the best British illustration.
In 1995, his poster won the “New York, Capital of the World” competition, selected by a jury chaired by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. A year later, he received the Stephan Dohanos Award, presented by members of the New York Illustrators Society, for the best work of the year.
In 1996, the U.S. News Agency commissioned Rafał Olbiński to design a poster commemorating the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, and in 2000, New York City authorities approached him with a proposal to create a poster for the 30th anniversary of Earth Day.
In 2002, the city of Fondi, Italy, awarded him the “Premio Divina Guilia” for his outstanding contribution to contemporary art.
Olbiński’s works are included in the collections of such prestigious institutions as, among others: The National Arts Club in New York, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress in Washington, the Suntory Museum in Osaka, and in numerous private and corporate collections in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.
In 2002, selected paintings by Rafał Olbiński were included in a projection program at Grand Central Station in New York, featured in the “Great Art” pantheon as one of the attractions honoring Earth Day. Other artists whose works were also featured included Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol.
That same year, his scenic design debut for the opera *Don Giovanni* in Philadelphia was highly praised by critics from *The New York Times* and *The Philadelphia Inquirer*.
Numerous articles in international magazines, such as the New York Times and Der Spiegel, have been devoted to Rafał Olbiński’s work.
To date, five books on Olbiński’s art have been published in the United States, the most recent being *Olbiński’s Women*, published by Hudson Hills Press in 2007.
In 2006, the President of Poland awarded the artist the Gloria Artis Gold Medal, and in 2012, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
In the 2013 Teraz Polska competition, Rafał Olbiński received the “Outstanding Pole” award.
In recent years, Rafał Olbiński’s work has been widely exhibited around the world. In 2019, his work was featured at the Polish Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland, and in Munich. A presentation of the book *Ars Picturae* took place at the British Parliament. In 2018, an exhibition featuring one hundred paintings took place at the Palace of Art in Kraków. In recent years, there have also been numerous solo exhibitions of Rafał Olbiński’s work in the United States: in 2017 at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, in 2016 at Gallery 444 in San Francisco, in 2014 at Gallery Studio Vendome in New York, and in 2013 at the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 2015, he presented his works at EXPO in Milan, and previously, in 2014, in China at the International Art Exhibition in Harbin, and in 2013 at the Museu da Música in Lisbon. He was the only artist from Poland invited to participate in the 9th Art Biennale at the National Museum in Beijing in 2022.