Studio Vendome and Studio Vendome Projects are the two SoHo district galleries exhibiting the collection. A hardcover book, The Virtue of Ambiguity, has also been released at the opening reception which was held on Wednesday, 11 December, 2013. Profusely illustrated, the book includes essays by the renowned art critic Robert C. Morgan and Olbiński’s biographer, Izabela Gabrielson.
Compared sometimes with Belgian painter Rene Magritte’s work, Olbiński defines his influences as „everybody“ and his approach as „poetic surrealism“. Rafał Olbiński has won more than one hundred awards, including gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Art Directors Club of New York; and comparable awards in London and Paris. His works are included in the Museum of Modern Art’s Poster Collection, the Carnegie Foundation in New York, National Arts Club in New York, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress in Washington, Suntory Museum in Osaka, Japan, the Poster Museum in Warsaw, Poland, and others throughout Europe and the United States.
Born in Kielce, Poland in 1945, Olbiński graduated from the architecture program of the Warsaw Polytechnical School in 1969. Eventually, he dedicated himself to painting and poster design. In 1970 he acted as the art director of Jazz Forum, the iconic international jazz magazine founded in Poland in 1965. He was a key member of the Polish School of Posters, which exerted a significant influence upon international graphic design. In 1981 Olbiński had to immigrate to the United States and has previously served as faculty at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Rediscovered Masters website has recently featured Olbiński as „America’s Greatest Living Surrealist“.
Source: Downtown Magazine, NYC
Edited by E.M. 13/12/2013