Wilhelm Sasnal

Wilhelm Sasnal was born in 1972 in Tarnów, Poland, where he continues to live and work. He began his studies in architecture at the Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology in Kraków between 1992 and 1994 before turning to painting, completing his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1999. That same year, his work was recognized with the Grand Prix at the Bielska Jesień Painting Biennial, an early signal of the critical attention his practice would attract in the years that followed.

Sasnal has since established himself as one of the most closely watched painters of his generation. In 2006, Flash Art magazine placed him first on its list of the one hundred most important young artists in the world, and that same year he received the Vincent Award, presented through the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 2014, the Republic of Poland honored him with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, as well as in prominent private holdings including the Goetz Collection, the Saatchi Collection, and the Starak Family Foundation Collection. The Goetz Collection featured his work in the group exhibition Random Sampling: Painting from the Goetz Collection at Haus der Kunst, Munich, in 2015.

Represented primarily by Anton Kern Gallery in New York and Sadie Coles HQ in London, Sasnal has maintained a sustained and prolific exhibition presence across both galleries over more than two decades. His solo shows at Anton Kern Gallery have spanned 2003, 2010, 2017, 2021, 2022, and the 2025 exhibition Sad Tropics. At Sadie Coles HQ, notable presentations include Sleep in 2018, followed by solo exhibitions in 2020, 2024, and family / history in 2026. He has also shown at Taka Ishii Gallery in Kyoto, with a solo exhibition there in 2023, and a presentation at Espace Louis Vuitton in Munich is scheduled for 2026. His relationship with the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw forms an important part of his earlier institutional history in Poland. Writing in 2025, ArtCritic described Sasnal as a philosopher of disturbing images — a characterization that speaks to the persistent psychological and historical weight that animates his painting.