Sylwester Ambroziak boldly marked his presence on the Polish art scene towards the end of the 1980s. That is when his controversial diploma project at the Warsaw ASP (Academy of Fine Arts) – at Prof. Grzegorz Kowalewski’s workshop – not only stirred the academic circles but also had far-reaching repercussions because it touched upon questions of artistic freedom, transgression of iconographic conventions, and respect for sacrum. His art can hardly be overlooked today, and numerous exhibitions and publications constantly prove his popularity.

‘I Look Like You On The Inside’ is a review of works by Sylwester Ambroziak from the years 1986-2003. The author presented crowds of human figures sculpted in wood. Huge humanoid creatures apotheosized primal vigor and sometimes quite barbarian dormant instincts. Ambroziak’s figures gathered within the confinement of gallery spaces make a curious, fascinating sight.

“Ambroziak owes his exceptional status to the consequence with which he follows his artistic trail – says Mariusz Knorowski who curated the exhibition at Stary Browar. This trail is defined both by permanence of the formal convention (figurative) and steadfastness of his ethic choices, distinct in the poetics of his expression. They serve as a clear signature of this artist: his firm individual style complemented with a unique narrative on human life. His consequence proves that Ambroziak does not give in to immediate calculations based on temporary fashion or short-term trends of aesthetic nature. He consciously has chosen to stick by existential reflection on the human condition which he passes on to us in its simplest, rustic form. His artistic trail is timeless, its genealogy complex (archaic, primitive, folk sculpture), stylistically different to analytical formalism but also to aestheticizing metaphor of contemporary sculpture. It is because the author means to disclose to us all the naked truth about a man – the truth which gets increasingly stronger as years pass by, and which he readily shares with fellow human beings, using a comprehensible language”.