Iwo Zaniewski

Iwo Zaniewski (b. 1956) is a Polish painter, photographer, director and artistic director of PZL advertising agency. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 1981 and won the Grand Prix at the Joan Miró Foundation International Competition in Barcelona, Spain in 1984.

Iwo Zaniewski works primarily with traditional oil painting and drawing. The artist’s works reflect a distinct sensitivity to the ordinary and celebrate moments and scenes of everyday life. His voluminous oeuvre can be divided into classical subject matter, namely: portraits and self-portraits, still life, interiors, and landscapes. Despite numerous changes in the contemporary painting conventions concerning the portrayal of reality, the characteristic feature of Zaniewski’s paintings has remained essentially that of composition. As such, his works are not readily ascribed to trends in the history of contemporary art. His figurative oil paintings retain harmoniously combined colours and painstakingly structured composition—an arrangement of forms wherein any potential alteration breaks down a cohesive construction and leads to deterioration of harmony. After conducting extensive theoretical and practical research with visual psychologists and neurologists, Iwo Zaniewski is now considered the first person in the world to have described the mechanism governing visual harmony. His paintings are included in private and public collections in Europe, USA, Mexico, China, and Japan.

In the mid-1980s, Iwo Zaniewski also began creative work in commercials and photography. His first commercial projects were for Spanish advertising agency Bassat Ogilvy & Mather in Barcelona. He directed his first commercials in Poland for ITI Agency. From 1992 to 1999, he was the artistic director of Grey Agency in Warsaw. He created advertising campaigns for major Polish brands, including Knorr, Frugo, Okocim, Radio Zet, Lucky Strike, and Malma. In 1999, together with Kot Przybora, he founded PZL (Przybora Zaniewski Ltd.) Advertising Agency, where he is now both the artistic and commercial director. PZL has created advertising campaigns for Frugo, Dębowe Mocne, Żubr, Redds, Orlen, Tetley, Olej Kujawski, Manuel, Simplus, and the longest-running Polish advertising campaign for Plus, a brand of a mobile phone network operator.