Andrzej Gruszka was born in Katowice in 1959. He completed his theological studies. He has been writing poetry for several dozen years. He has published ten individual and several collective volumes. He polemicizes with prose in “Letters to Archangel Gabrysia” about his fascination with painting, stories about travels to museums, classical, jazz and rock music. And also art seen graphically as a form of expression, but above all about your everyday life. Since 2008, he is an amateur painting. He is the author of over a thousand works painted with pastels, watercolors, acrylic and oil paints. His paintings could be seen at openings and exhibitions in Katowice, Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Łaziska Górne, Gorzyce, Rybnik, a scientific symposium in Piekary Śląskie, Siedlce or in the Homeless Gallery at the Solanin film festival in Nowa Sól. He actively participates in confrontations and meetings with authors related to poetry and painting. In 2015 he received the Grand-Prix awarded at the Art Passion Festival of the II International Zagłębie Art Festival for the painting “Miłość”, he exhibited his paintings in Bydgoszcz as part of the Teofil Ociepka competition. His works qualified for the TOP 10 INTERNET at the 42nd Painting Biennale “Bielska Jesień 2015”. In 2016 he became the Man of the Year tuJastrzębie.pl in the “Culture” category. 2017 he won a special award for the set of works “My holiday”, “Nocny self-portrait”, “Waiting” funded by the Silesian Museum in Katowice, and in 2018 the third award for the work “Rozmodleń” in the Polish National Art Competition. Paweł Wróbel in Szopienice. In 2019, in the same competition, he won the third prize for the painting “Colleagues”. The year 2019 resulted in the purchase by Muzeum Śląskie of seven works by the artist, and at the beginning of 2020, the participation of three of his works in a collective exhibition on the occasion of the centenary of Aleksander Jackowski’s birth organized by the Silesian Museum under the name “Art called naïve and what’s next. Reception of Aleksander Jackowski’s thoughts ”. In 2021, the Silesian Museum purchased another twenty-two of his works. What he does – as he says – are his greatest passions in life.
