Roots and Education

Born in Lida, in the Nowogródek region. Since 1945, he lived with his parents in Warmia, near Bartoszyce. A graduate of the Pedagogical High School in Bartoszyce, and later the Teacher Training College in Olsztyn. He pursued his artistic studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, obtaining a diploma in painting in 1967 in the studio of Professor Stanisław Borysowski.

He interlaced the various stages of his own education with pedagogical work. After completing his studies in Toruń, he returned to Olsztyn and took a position at the Teacher Training College in the Technical Department, teaching artistic woodworking. This became the catalyst for directing his interests towards applied arts. After the dissolution of the college, he decided to work independently, collaborating with the Visual Arts Studio (Pracownia Sztuk Plastycznych). In 1990, he began working at the Higher School of Pedagogy as a senior lecturer, teaching sculpture. After eight years, he obtained a First-Degree Qualification in Fine Arts in the artistic discipline of painting. These qualifications led to his appointment as an assistant professor (adiunkt). In 2003, he obtained his Second-Degree Qualification.

First Successes and the Search for Style

Painting brought his first success in the form of a second prize at the post-competition exhibition titled "Life and Work in Warmia and Mazury" at the BWA in Olsztyn, in his first year after graduation (1967). This served as an incentive to participate in the artistic life of the regional community through annual exhibitions of Olsztyn visual arts. Landscapes and figurative compositions dominated his paintings and drawings. The artist was searching for his own style, utilizing the experience and sensitivity in color and light gained in Prof. Borysowski's studio. He observed the latest art trends; in his early painting, we find elements of surrealism, metaphysics, symbolism, and metaphysical or allegorical stylizations. He did not succumb to avant-garde art.

His restless nature required a constant search for new means of artistic expression. Painting did not fully satisfy these aspirations. Applied arts, previously treated as a hobby, took precedence over painting for the following decade. Without abandoning the canvas and brush, he took on a new challenge in a new field – ceramics. Through experimentation and search, supported by thorough study, he mastered the craft to perfection and developed his own characteristic style, creating works that gained interest and recognition both at home and abroad.

Union with Nature and Ceramic Forms

Raised in Warmia and Mazury and spiritually united with nature, he was inspired by folk art and motifs drawn from the natural world. In the initial period of gaining experience with the new material, he created small functional forms, focusing mainly on the decorative nature of motifs and the stylization of shapes. Mastering glaze technology and experimenting with the effects of their use became a temptation to present the achieved possibilities in large-scale spatial compositions.

His regularly exhibited works found numerous recipients, and to this day they decorate the interiors of permanent galleries, private apartments, and official residences. The culmination of his experience and the effects he achieved were interior arrangements. Sometimes his ceramic sculptures became architectural elements and dominated the space (e.g., the "Caritas" chapel in Przasnysz), creating monumental interior compositions.

Return to the Canvas: The Philosophy of the Tree

His adventure with ceramics concluded in 1986, having achieved fulfillment in decorative art and spatial composition. He wished to apply the aesthetic experiences gained from working with form—its material and structure, the light modeling shapes and toning color—to painting. While continuing to paint, he sought the most appropriate means of expression for his personal relationship with the surrounding reality. He narrowed his circle of interests to the world of nature. These inspirations derived from an organic connection with the natural environment, which served as the source of his own philosophy, dreams, and experiences.

He recorded the emerging anxieties about the future and survival on canvas. Dynamic landscape compositions, unsettling with color contrasts, were created to realize a sense of threat. Occasionally, hope and optimism appear within a surreal space—the colors then become more delicate, harmonized, and luminous, and the forms more tranquil. At other times, a monochromatic landscape forces reflection on a vision of disaster. This painting is a message regarding the biological structure of the world.

Michał Sawaniuk creates decorativeness in his works by utilizing motifs from ceramic processing—the structure of a cracked surface and frequent references to rounded shapes. In his ethereal landscapes, the primary element is the motif of the tree—a symbol of life and strength. Alone or in groups, often lost in an inhospitable environment, they grow on slender, delicate trunks into lush crowns with unnatural shapes, referencing molded forms with the appearance of a cylinder, cone, or shield-like spindles.

Sometimes a whole life cycle is hidden within the compositions—from the sprouting seed, through the fragility of growth, to the bloom of maturity. It is a poetics of the mystery of life, presented in a nostalgic and melancholic way, referring to solitude and coexistence, to permanence and passing. The artist speaks through color, using pure and aggressive hues, often juxtaposed based on contrast, or maintaining the image in a single tone—beiges, blues, and whitened pinks—achieving a specific atmospheric expression. Art and didactics in the artist's life were intertwined and permeated each other. In combination with the surrounding nature, they formed this sensitive and restless soul.