Andrzej Zielinski’s paintings and sculptures, inspired by everyday machines such as computers, cell phones, ATMs, and printers, reflect his fascination with technology. Drawing on the traditions of the ready-made and abstract painting, he explores how these objects embody both the unsettling pace of innovation as well as the shared human experience.

Andrzej Zieliński’s works confront the hidden infrastructure of the machines we depend on—devices that transmit, store, encrypt, and erase. Working across painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, he breaks down the polished surface of technology to expose its contradictions. Familiar forms are warped and compressed, their functions destabilized into something between control and collapse, obsolescence and permanence.

At times humorous and at others disquieting, Zieliński’s objects resist seamless integration into the world of mass production and consumerism. By manipulating the physicality of machines, he turns them into uncanny sculptures that invite reflection on our reliance on technology, questioning both its fragility and its power. These pieces often feel out of sync with the high-tech world they represent, insisting instead on their own unruly logic. The viewer, in turn, becomes an active participant in the work, engaging with the objects not as functional devices but as enigmatic, almost living entities. It is the viewer’s imagination that breathes new life into these machines—transforming them into something entirely different and unexpectedly personal.

Through this exploration of technology’s physical and psychological impact, Zieliński raises important questions about the future of human-machine relationships. What happens when our tools, which were once seen as extensions of our will, begin to betray us or operate outside of our control? Zieliński’s works, while firmly grounded in the digital age, recall earlier concerns about the alienation and dehumanization that can arise from too close a relationship with technology. In his art, these tensions are not easily resolved but are instead suspended in a constant state of flux.

Andrzej Zieliński received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting & Printmaking from Yale University. Zieliński’s solo exhibitions include: Indoor Habitat at Emporia State University, Kansas; Connected: Relationships with Machines at Mattatuck Museum, Connecticut (2017); Control Remote at Haw Contemporary, Kansas City (2017); Primary Data at Gallery 9, Sydney (2016); Open Sourced at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas (2015); and You Are Disconnected, Would You Like to Proceed? at Mottahedan Projects, Dubai (2014).

Zieliński’s work has been included in group exhibitions at Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri (2022); The Lawrence Lithography Workshop, Nebraska (2022); Megalo Gallery, Canberra (2019); The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas (2019); and the Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra (2018). His work is held in numerous public collections, such as the Mattatuck Museum, Portland Art Museum, Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Canberra Museum and Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Artworks

Primary Data

Open Sourced

BOMB Magazine

Andrzej Zielinski: Joe Fyfe on the place between abstraction and caricature, where Andrzej Zielinski’s paintings reside

Artforum

Andrzej Zieliński
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art

KC Studio

Andrzej Zielinski: Open Sourced

Open Sourced


Year: 2016
Publisher: Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art / Johnson County Community College
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Details: 162 pages

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