Jarosław Hulbój attended the A. Kenar College of Fine Arts in Zakopane. He later completed his studies at the College of Fine Arts in Poznań, where he studied sculpture and drawing. As he hails from a rural area, wood has always been present in his life. “I was brought up in the countryside and I had to do a lot of things by myself. I helped my dad fell trees and make furniture,” says Hulbój. Before starting high school, he had already been sculpting for 2 years. “As a child I made the kind of sculptures Hasior would call plebeian art or folk-sacral art. I made nativity scenes, sorrowful Jesuses and shrines”.
At the renowned Zakopane college, the development of his talent was overseen by professionals. Today, he himself scouts for young sculpting talents. Since October 2012 he has been teaching the class “Design and Space Organization” at the Department of Artistic Education at Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts. In April 2013 he began collaborating with the Poznań School of Form, where he runs the “Methods of Working with Wood” workshops.
In his work Hulbój focuses chiefly on the possibilities offered by the use of wood and wood derivatives. He has many group and individual exhibitions under his belt. He became interested in woodturning when he visited an exhibition of works by noted American turners-designers.
Jarosław Hulbój recalls:
“In the USA and England, design is closely linked to handicraft. When I saw the metre tall individually turned vessels at that exhibition, I was enchanted. My father-in-law had a lathe, so I tried it out and was instantly hooked. That’s how I began woodturning. One time some guy asked me to turn a sink for him and I agreed.”
The project was a success and it was the beginning of a series of waterproof pieces of bathroom equipment made entirely from wood, including sinks, bathtubs and shower cabins.
Jarosław Hulbój says that he wouldn’t have entered the world of design if it wasn’t for handicraft. He tries to inspire young Polish designers with his approach, and the fruits of their labor are to be presented at an exhibition entitled Drzewo (tree), of which Hulbój is curator. Hulbój challenged groups of artists — e.g. Piotr Stolarski or members of the Wzorowo group — to work with fragments of a withered ash tree that once grew in the Tatry National Park. Each artist had to choose a different part of the tree and create something from it. “The results of their work are a testimony to a completely different approach to design; I am very happy with this exhibition,” says Hulbój. Objects created from the ash tree include a lamp made from leaves, a lamp from planks, a table, a stool, and a form for glassblowing. The exhibition featured at the Łódź Design Festival.
Over the span of 2014 Jarosław Hulbój, yet again in cooperation with the Tatra National Park, was working on a several month long interdisciplinary project, entitled Shelter. Invited artists were to reflect upon the identity of the Tatra mountains, as a special place, questioning both its poetics and dismantling its touristy image so omnipresent in the universal consciousness of all Poles. Not only has Hulbój acted as a curator for this project, but, next to Jakub Szczęsny, Paweł Jasiewicz, Leszek Golec, Aleksandra Wasilkowska and others also contributed to it as an artist himself. He prepared some handmade notebooks, which he then gave to random tourists. The notebooks were equipped with a pencil and a GPS and the decision as to how to use them, to keep them, to leave them, to write in them or not, was left to the participants.
Individual exhibitions and shows:
2004
Poetry Reading – performance - Hotel Terminus, Sierre, Switzerland
2003
Poetry Reading – performance - Braziers International Workshop, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire, Great Britain
Wieczorek poetycki (Poetry Reading) – performance – Klatka Gallery, Silesian University, Cieszyn
2000
Jarosław Hulbój & Marek Sienkiewicz – Municipal Gallery, Wrocław
1999
Rekonstrukcje/Dekonstrukcje(Reconstructions/Deconstructions) – Castle Gallery, Sucha Beskidzka (with H. Czerepok)
1995
Na horyzoncie stołu (On the Table’s Horizon) –Gallery on the Vistula, Toruń (with J. Kijewski)
Na horyzoncie stołu (On the Table’s Horizon) – performance – ON Gallery, Poznań
Poddasze (The Attic) – NOW Gallery, Szczecin (with T. Kuncel)
1994
Ciało//Kamień (Body//Stone)– performance – Skoki near Poznań
Columna vertebralis – PWSSP, Poznań (diploma work)
O horyzoncie (About the Horizon)– performance – Pryzmat Gallery, Kraków
Sytuacja dla Łazarza (Situation for Lazarus)– Antoni Rząsa’s Gallery, Zakopane
1993
Zamykając zmysły (Closing the Senses)- Skoki near Poznań
1992
Transformacja (Transformation) – performance – PWSSP, Poznań
Ani tak – ani tak (Neither – Nor)– performance - PWSSP, Poznań
Moja prawa ręka (My Right Hand)– performance - Skoki near Poznań
Group exhibitions:
2014
Lodz Design Festival
2013
Transakcja Łączona (Joint Transaction) – Institute of the History of Art of the Wrocław University
2012
Poetry Training #3 – SUPERNORMAL Festival, Oxfordshire, Great Britain
ECO DIY – The Encouragement of Fine Arts, Szczecin
Zakopane po sezonie (Zakopane After the Season) – Lidia Rosińska’s and Czesław Podleśny’s Gallery, Zakopane
2010
Poetry Training #1 - SUPERNORMAL Festival, Oxfordshire, Great Britain
2004
Touched by the Mind of the Poet – Sierre, Switzerland
L’entraînement poétique - Gyumri International Biennial of Contemporary Art – Armenia
2003
Outside Out – Braziers International Artists Workshop, Oxfordshire, Great Britain
+ – Kingsgate Gallery, London, Great Britain
Paszport (Passport) – OFFICYNA Gallery, Szczecin
Zmiana ekspozycji (A Change of Exposition) – Small Gallery, Nowy Sącz
2002
Paszport (Passport) – Forum Ost-West. Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Absolwenci (Graduates)– Municipal Art Gallery, Zakopane
Nauczyciele-Artyści (Teachers-Artists)– Gallery of the Secondary School of Fine Arts, Zakopane
2001
Table – Southville Centre, Bristol, Great Britain
Continuum – Inner Space Multimedia, Poznań
2000
Zakopane – pępek świata (Zakopane – the Center of the World) – Art Gallery, Zakopane
1999
Meandry obecności (Meandrous Presence) – Polish Sculpture Centre, Orońsko
Pobyt stały (Permanent Residence)– Tatranska Galeria Elektraren, Poprad, Slovakia
Pobyt stały (Permanent Residence) – L. Wyczółkowski District Museum, Bydgoszcz
1998
Laboratorium IV (Laboratory IV) – Vysne Ruzbachy, Slovakia
Litera, słowo, zdanie (Letter, Word, Sentence) – Art Fort, Kraków
Odpryski – spotkanie artystów performance (Chips- a Meeting of Performance Artists) – ON Gallery, Poznań
1997
Małe rysunki (Small Drawings) – National Museum, Gdańsk
Małe rysunki – różne komentarze (Small Drawings – Various Comments)– BWA, Słupsk
Drinnen und Drausen – Polish Cultural Institute, Berlin, Germany
Widać, słychać i czuć (Visible, Audible and Palpable) – Bath, Gdańsk
1996
Wystawa noworoczna (New Year’s Exhibition) – BWA, Zakopane
Polimetrie (Polymeters)– BWA, Wrocław
Pokolenie’96 (Generation ‘96)– BWA, Katowice
Berdyszak, Dzięcielewska, Hulbój, Patoprsta, Sienkiewicz – Municipal Gallery, Wrocław
Spotkanie Berlin – Zakopane (Berlin – Zakopane, a Meeting) – Zakopane
Forum Ost-West – Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
Małe rysunki (Small Drawings) –State Gallery of Art, Łódź
1995
Candid Camera – Artists’ Museum, Łódź
Artists from Eastern and Central Europe –Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh, USA
X Spotkania Krakowskie (Kraków Meetings – 10th Edition) – Art Bunker, Kraków
5362 m3 – Place of Art, Mosina
1994
Oblicza przemian, przemijań (The Face of Change and Passing) – Gallery on the Vistula, Toruń
Gast-Statte – Frankfurt on the Oder, Germany
1993
Siedmiu artystów z Poznania (Seven Artists from Poznań) – Gallery on the Vistula, Toruń
Experimentalna Tvoriva Umelecka Dielna – Skalica, Slovakia
Idee poza ideologią (Ideas Beyond Ideology) – Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
1992
Istropolitana – Bratislava, Slovakia
Studio of Jaroslaw Kozlowski – Byam Shaw School of Arts, London, Great Britain
5362 m3 – Place of Art, Mosina
Miejsca nie miejsca (Peculiar Places) – Polish Sculpture Centre, Orońsko
Rozdroża rzeźby (Sculptural Crossroads)– Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
Author: Katarzyna Zacharska, September 2013. Updated AM, May 2016