Widely lauded for his surreal cityscapes, Brzozowski first found fame just over a decade back while still employed as an architect. It was then that he began publishing his extracurricular work online, with his early watercolors greeted by a wave of enthusiasm.
First focusing on his hometown, Warsaw, these paintings showcased the Polish capital in a way none had seen before.
“I started working on a series that I call ‘magical Warsaw’ while I was at a very high-profile architectural studio,” he tells TVP World. “At the time, I saw it as a way to decompress away from a really difficult and stressful job.”
This Warsaw that he painted was indeed magical – in it, pre-war tenements stood perched on slender stilts as trams trundled over arching bridges that shot from upper floor windows.
“An important moment came at the beginning of 2014 when I held an exhibition,” he says. “Crowds showed up and the paintings were very well reviewed. I also experienced a lot of interest from the media. Thanks to this, in 2015 I started painting full-time and my new career gained traction.”
When the Bored Panda platform featured his work that same year, his paintings went viral.
A feast of light and color, these were an uncharacteristically joyful representation of a city that, at the time, still struggled with positive global PR.
“Who said that Warsaw in Poland is ugly?” wrote Bored Panda. “We love seeing it through Tytus Brzozowski’s eyes, a super talented artist that presents the city of his dreams.”
In the years that have followed, Brzozowski’s color palette has developed, as too has the scale and ambition of his work – although watercolors remain his bread and butter, the artist has now authored several murals around the nation.
Stylistically, however, his works remain bound by their enchanting playfulness. Peppered with dreamy touches, in the paintings of Brzozowski it is not uncommon to see dice tumbling from the skies, buildings in the clouds, or people floating through the air with an umbrella overhead.
“I always enjoy adding people as I love lively, bustling cities,” he says, “and I do also like to hide small surrealistic details here and there.”
These elements, he continues, are a humorous nod to Poland’s own quirky personality.
“I think Polish cities are a bit crazy, they’re definitely less hom*ogenized than those in ‘the West’. I try to show that by adding little details that are as confusing as the everyday events you see happening here on the streets.”
Imbued with good energy and a whimsical sense of fun, Brzozowski’s art has a universal quality that appeals to all. “I try to evoke positive emotions,” he says, “and I think that’s why people have responded so well to it.”
Indeed, viewing his images it is impossible not to feel his infectious love for Poland. “I really want to show this country as a happy place with interesting architecture and inspiring, vibrant cities full of life,” he says.
Brzozowski’s acute appreciation of domestic history adds another layer to his work. This is particularly seen on his murals, nine of which now adorn the walls of Warsaw.
Supersize Me!
“The first was on Warsaw’s Wolska Street on a blind wall of a newly built office building,” he says. Painted in 2018, and reaching 35 meters in height, it sought to tell the story of the Wola district’s journey to “metropolitanism”.
“Large-format murals can be used to commemorate events or people, and generally add to the atmosphere of an area,” he says. “I want my murals to tell a story about the place where they are located so that they are relevant to the people that live there.”
As such, subsequent murals have included a sensitive celebration of the past on Próżna street in the heart of the capital. “This was very much a Jewish area before the war,” explains Brzozowski, “so I wanted to recall the life and people of this place, as well as the atmosphere.”
In line with this, the XL work bristles with buildings permanently erased by the Nazis in World War II: for instance, the Great Synagogue and the Simons Passage shopping center. Alongside these, viewers see shop signs that Brzozowski copied from archival photographs and busy crowds of craftsmen and traders.
Creating nutshell histories in visual form, Brzozowski’s murals are a loving tribute to a bygone world. However, with them comes an unseen pressure: “Through these works I’m able to reach hundreds of thousands of people each day, so while that makes me incredibly proud, there’s a heightened sense of responsibility that comes with the knowledge that my work impacts people’s lives and the appearance of the city.”
Making for a vivid and arresting sight, the intricacy of his murals hints at the work involved.
“The idea behind a mural is different to that of a painting,” he tells TVP World. “I choose the perspective depending on the angle from which the mural will be viewed most often, and then I adopt an appropriate number of elements depending on the size of the wall and the distance from which it is visible.
“The cardinal direction and the amount of sunlight is also important, and it’s also worth bearing in mind the very nature of the wall,” he adds. “On Warsaw’s Wschowska Street, for example, the mural spanned three walls of a building, with two of these covered by a dense grid of windows – I utilized these to my advantage and made windows a key subject of the mural.”
Home & Away
Brzozowski’s powerful connection to Warsaw is unmistakable (he works, he says, from a studio that once belonged to his great-great-grandparents), but it is his work beyond the city’s borders that has given him increased exposure in the international field.
“Over the years I’ve been involved in several interesting projects,” he says. “For the Polish Tourist Organization, I prepared a series of paintings of Polish cities that were displayed at some of the world’s largest fairs to promote Poland as a tourist destination.”
Another saw him engaged by the Polonika Institute to paint cities from all over the world, paying particular attention to the traces of Polish culture hidden in them.
“Some of the links I discovered really moved my imagination, especially those connected with Warsaw,” he says. “For example, painting Chicago I found that the city’s Copernicus Center was a copy of the tower found at Warsaw’s Royal Castle.”
Other gems also lay in store. “In Rapperswil, the big surprise was the first ever National Museum of Poland – it was extraordinary that such a small Swiss town had such a Polish spirit.”
A decade after he first hit the spotlight, Brzozowski’s popularity has not dimmed. “A lot is happening in the coming weeks and months, including three more murals in Warsaw,” he says.
These too are set to reflect the character and background of their immediate environs, and it is perhaps this “celebration of place” that gives his uplifting work additional significance to those who view it. Through his unorthodox celebrations of the past, Brzozowski has become one of the most in-demand artists of the present.
With his star showing no sign of waning, it’s just as likely he’ll be the artist of tomorrow.
