BIO
Vivid Crimes is the artistic alter ego of Agata Leszczynska, a Polish visual artist born in 1982. She studied at the Art High School in Kraków (Liceum Sztuk Plastycznych w Krakowie) from 1997 to 2002, and in 2007 graduated with a Master of Arts degree from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland.
Working across painting, drawing, collage, animation, and installation, her practice explores the intersection of fine art, visual storytelling, and experimental media. She works primarily with acrylic and oil paint, creating works that balance expressive imagery with conceptual depth.
Her work has been exhibited in Poland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Aotearoa New Zealand. She currently lives and works between Poland, the Netherlands, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
STATEMENT
My painting center on concepts of realism, copying, repetition, and interpretation. By transforming canonical works from art history, I explore the significance of the painting tradition and its relationship to contemporary culture. I am interested in examining the identity of the artist, the individual, and the collective through the processes of repetition and reinterpretation.
I isolate realistically rendered figures against smooth, abstract backgrounds, placing them within a sense of solitude characteristic of contemporary metropolitan life. The palimpsest-like structure of the paintings creates a space in which established myths can be revisited and, through personal intervention, opened to new meanings and contexts.
My work draws inspiration from individual alienation, the roles people perform, and the enduring significance of myth and symbolism. Through appropriation, transformation, and repetition, I explore how familiar images can shift in meaning and how personal interpretation can reshape both the past and the present.
CV
Exhibitions:
2024 – Collective Exhibition “Look Thrice” in gallery Anomalous, Surfdale, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; IG @galleryanomalous (together with Mike Crawshaw and Cobi Tfj Bosch)
2023 – Walker and Hall Art Award exhibition finalist at Waiheke Art gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz; https://walkerandhall.com/pages/waiheke-art-award
2023 – Collective Exhibition “The Member’s Show” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2022 December/2023 Janury – Individual Painting Exhibition “Nocturnal Tales” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2022 – Collective Exhibition “King’s College Art Exhibition” at King’s College, Golf Ave, Otahuhu Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.kingscollegeartexhibition.co.nz
2022 – Collective Exhibition “The Member’s Show” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2022 – Emerging Artist Award on “Small Sculptures Prize 2022” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2022 – Collective Exhibition “Reclaim to fame” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2021 – Collective Exhibition “The Member’s Show” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2016 – Individual Painting Exhibition “What are we? Where are we going?” in Witthus Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2013 – 41. International Painting Biennial “Bielska Jesien”, Bielsko-Biala, Poland, www.galeriabielska.pl
2012 – Collective exhibition “Sweet illness” BWA Tarnów, Poland; www.bwa.tarnow.pl
2012 – Collective exhibition on 7. International Miniatures Biennial, Czestochowa, Poland, honoral mention; www.biennale.art.pl
2011 – III The Alternative Comics and Illustration Fair, “Krotkie Historie” in Ligatura, Poznan, Poland; www.ligatura.eu
2010 – Individual Painting Exhibition, The Thought Gallery, Amsterdam, www.thethought.nl
2010 – Collective Painting Exhibition “Nature of Art”, The Walls Gallery, Amsterdam, www.walls.nl
2009 – 39. International Painting Biennial “Bielska Jesien”, Bielsko-Biala, Poland, www.galeriabielska.pl
2008 – 11. International Painting Competition “Painting Public Space 2009”, Profil Gallery, Centrum Kultury, ZAMEK, Poznan, Poland, honoral mension
2008 – 4 Edition of Available Art exhibition, Freiraum / quartier 21, Museumsquartier, Wien, Austria
Awards:
2022 – Emerging Artist Award on “Small Sculptures Prize 2022” at Waiheke Art Gallery, Oneroa, Waiheke Island, Aotearoa New Zealand; www.waihekeartgallery.org.nz
2012 – Collective exhibition on 7. International Miniatures Biennial, Czestochowa, Poland, honoral mention; www.biennale.art.pl
2008 – 11. International Painting Competition “Painting Public Space 2009”, Profil Gallery, Centrum Kultury, ZAMEK, Poznan, Poland, honoral mension