Contemporary  Painter – Aleksander Balos
If you need to contact me please e-mail to:
figurative.art [at] gmail.com

for original paintings contact ann nathan gallery in chicago

bio 

Aleksander Balos was born in Gliwice, Poland. His father Jan worked in an industrial factory and his mother Janina was a schoolteacher. Neither was a member of the Communist Party Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza or PZPR, and due to Jan’s candid criticisms of government policies during the 1980s, his name was placed on a list to be sent to a Soviet labor camp. Following Janina’s death in 1982, Aleksander’s health declined until he suffered a severe case of rheumatic fever which damaged his heart, rendering him medically housebound at age 14 for a period of six months. Due to his personal challenges and the overall socio-economic climate of mid-1980s Poland, Balos focused his attention over the next few years searching for a means to leave the country and emigrate to the West. In the summer of 1989 at the age of 18 he was able to relocate to the United States, after receiving a student visa to attend St. Joseph High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin. While there he received the encouragement of his art teacher Kathy Gagliardi, who assisted him in applying to colleges to study art.

Balos received a full scholarship to Cardinal Stitch University in Milwaukee WI, where he studied painting and drawing with Philosophy Professor Garry Rosine.   After completing his BFA in 1995 Balos relocated to Chicago to enroll in an atelier program at the School of Representational Art whose lineage and methods date back to Jacques-Louis David.  At SORA, Balos studied drawing and painting of the human form with Bruno Surdo and Mike Chelich. Figurative realism and portraiture constituted most of the body of Balos’ work in the ’90s and early 2000s. During that time, Balos returned frequently to Europe to research painting techniques and contents of the old masters’ paintings.   Balos’ work utilizes human figure to portray various ideals and faults of human existence without suggesting solutions. The narrative compositions are intended to be interpreted by the audience, as only then the paintings gain their temporary and subjective meaning.

Since 1997 Balos has been represented by the Ann Nathan Gallery in Chicago, where he has held five solo exhibitions. Since 2000 Balos has contributed work to art gallery shows in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Paris, Utrecht and Barcelona; and for art fairs such as The Armory Show in NY, Art Chicago, Palm Beach3, WWK Biennale in Munich, and the Royal Academy’s Summer Show in London.

In 2005 Balos relocated to Northern California and since then his body of work has expanded to include looser applications, utilizing abstractions and multi-media techniques and styles. Balos also teaches drawing and painting privately at his atelier school ArtRoster in Mount Shasta, where his students host an annual “Forgery Show” on April 1 of each year.

In 2005 Balos relocated to Northern California and since then his body of work has expanded to include looser painting applications, utilizing abstractions and multi-media techniques and styles to portray ideas and ideals of existence through painting.

resume

education

1995 – Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee, WI
1998 – The School of Representational Art, Chicago, IL

solo exhibitions

2013 – Oil Paintings, Stock in Art Gallery, Mt. Shasta, CA
2011 – New Paintings, Red Door Gallery, Mt.Shasta, CA
2011 – Paintings, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 – Figurative Realism, Utrecht Gallery, Utrecht, Netherlands
2005 – Recent Paintings, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 – Travaux Recents, Crédit Municipal de Paris, Espace Griffon, Paris, France
2003/04 – New Paintings, Ann Nathan Gallery,Chicago, IL
2001 – Parables, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
1999 – Martyrs & Sinners, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
1996 – Clara Voce Cogito, Chastain Zollinger Gallery, Chicago, IL

group exhibitions