In 2022, Leon Tarasewicz created a new series of paintings that many viewers associate with the recent events taking place in Ukraine. The dark colours and anxiety that emanate from the canvases seem to confirm allusions to military action, but Tarasewicz claims that he did not intend to paint war. The paintings resemble ploughed earth with scattered dark mounds. The brown spots and specks form various, dramatic constellations. The artworks were first shown at an exhibition entitled New Paintings at Ego Gallery in Poznań.

Leon Tarasewicz, born in 1957 in Waliły in Podlasie, is one of the most eminent painters, educator, and figure of authority. Graduate of the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Tadeusz Dominik’s studio (1984). Since 1996, he ran a guest painting studio at the same Academy. He became a lecturer in painting at the Faculty of Media Art and Stage Design of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Since 2011, professor of visual arts.

In 2003, at the request of the Ego Gallery, he created a project for the city of Poznań, and chose the colonnade of Poznań’s Grand Theatre as its location. Widely commented on in the press, the Tarasewicz for Poznań event was one of the elements of the celebrations of the city’s 750th anniversary.

In 2005, Tarasewicz was awarded the Silver Gloria Artis Medal by the Minister of Culture Waldemar Dąbrowski, and in 2011 the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland. He has also received: Polityka’s Passport Award (2000), the Jan Cybis Award (1998), and the Zofia and Jerzy Nowosielski Foundation Award. In 2007, Tarasewicz was awarded the 2006 Grand Prize of the Culture Foundation for consistently challenging both the traditional understanding of painting and all established methods of understanding art. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Białystok.

Tarasewicz has taken part in numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. He collaborates with the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, the Krynki Gallery, the Ego Gallery in Poznań, and the Biała Gallery in Lublin. In 2008, he became an ambassador of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. He often highlights his Belarusian ethnic background and promotes Belarusian culture in Poland.

The artist is a bird enthusiast. He breeds, among others, ornamental hens (he co-authored a book on them), pigeons, and pheasants.