Piotr Marzec. Horses and Medusas

In the period 9 October 2026 - 18 October 2026, the Museum of Caricature showed works by Piotr Marzec, author of the comics “Słodkie Chłopaki” (Sweet Boys) and “Smoła” (Tar), at Lengrenówka, its second venue at ul. Brzozowa 6/8a in the Old Town. It was an edition of the “Dobre kreski” (Good Lines) series, open to visitors on only four days.

The Museum of Caricature on the exhibition:

Art history is full of examples of artists returning to the same subject again and again: several versions of Sunflowers, a series of Rouen Cathedral paintings depicting the building at different times of day, different versions of The Execution. Perhaps the reason is simply that you really like sunflowers. Or perhaps, somewhere between the moment an idea exists only in your head and the moment it becomes dried paint on a physical canvas, something of its original brilliance gets lost - and a second attempt might turn out better. Maybe it has nothing to do with the elusive nature of the world of ideas. Perhaps the different versions of The Enchanted City are simply part of the design process: loose sketches among which we eventually choose the perfect pictogram of a hand with a brush painting a picture. And then there is a fourth reason, one that puts the emphasis on the act of painting itself and its almost magical power of affirmation: “Theophilus painted the battle between Saint George and the dragon for so long that eventually the saint won and people could dance,” the narrator tells us in a film inspired by the story of the Janowska Group.

The starting point for Piotr Marzec’s first solo presentation since 2022 is a selection of works in which the same characters keep returning: Medusa, the Wolf-Man, Horses. It offers a glimpse into the design process - or perhaps a magical process. Or simply a chance to show just how much I like drawing horses.

What to expect

Instead of a survey of his whole output, the exhibition showed a few motifs to which the artist kept returning in successive works: Medusa, the Wolf-Man and horses. The museum billed it as Marzec’s first solo presentation since 2022 and stated its aim outright - to show the design process, not just the finished versions.

Marzec is an intermedia artist: he works in drawing, painting, comics and the artist’s book. The museum gave neither the number of works nor a list of objects, so it is not known which of these techniques made it onto the walls.

Lengrenówka is an adaptation of the former flat and studio of Zbigniew Lengren, the cartoonist associated with the magazine “Przekrój” and creator of Profesor Filutek. The museum describes it as a space for meetings, education, exhibitions and small artistic events. This was, then, an intimate exhibition of a single group of motifs.

The exhibition opened with a vernissage at Lengrenówka and was then open on the two following weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays. The museum announced no guided tours, talks or workshops to go with it.

It was for readers of Polish comics, especially those who know “Słodkie Chłopaki” or “Smoła”, and for anyone curious about how an artist returns to the same characters in successive works. Anyone who expected satirical cartoons from the museum’s name could have skipped it: the museum presented Marzec as an intermedia artist, and culture.pl describes his second album, “Smoła”, as a horror story.

About half an hour was enough for the exhibition itself: it was one series of works in a small interior. The museum did not give the number of works, so this is our editorial estimate.

Context

Piotr Marzec was born in 1993 in Myślenice and graduated from Mirosław Bałka’s Spatial Activities Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts (ASP) in Warsaw. His debut, “Słodkie Chłopaki”, first circulated independently and won Złote Kurczaki (Golden Chickens), the awards of an independent comics festival, for best comic and best script of 2020. In 2022 the album was shown in the exhibition “Niepokój przychodzi o zmierzchu” (Unease Comes at Dusk) at Zachęta.

His second album, “Smoła”, published by Kultura Gniewu, was nominated in 2025 for the Warsaw Literary Prize (Nagroda Literacka m.st. Warszawy) in the comics category. Culture.pl sets the two titles against each other: the debut is a loose, sentimental anthology of backyard stories rooted in their local setting, while “Smoła” is a fictional horror story in a dense line. Marzec also publishes his work in his own zine, “Zealot”.

“Dobre kreski” (Good Lines) is a series of solo exhibitions by illustrators, comics artists and satirical cartoonists, which the Museum of Caricature runs with the Museum of Comics Foundation (Fundacja Muzeum Komiksu) from Kraków; the series curator is Michał Rzecznik. The series began in April 2023, and by March 2026 the museum was already writing about its fourth season. Some earlier editions were one-weekend shows; this one ran for two.

Updates

• 2026-10-19 - the exhibition closed on 18 October 2026, as the museum had announced; the museum has moved it to its exhibition archive, and the exhibition page still gives the same opening days, with no notice of an extension (sources: the museum’s list of exhibitions, exhibition page, both in Polish).

After the show

At the Museum of Caricature now and coming soon:

• Photocopy and Hand Out! Zines and the Independent Press in Poland During the Transition - the current exhibition in the museum’s main building at ul. Kozia 11. Its co-curator is Michał Rzecznik, the curator of “Dobre kreski”, and Marzec himself started out in independent circulation and publishes his own zine.
• Weronika Banasińska, “Nie wiem, czy dożyję czterdziestki” (I Don’t Know If I’ll Live to Forty) - the museum announces the next edition of “Dobre kreski”, again at Lengrenówka, for the end of October and the beginning of November.

Elsewhere on drawing, posters and comics:

• Adolph Menzel (1815-1905). The Tireless Observer - a current exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw, drawing from an entirely different era: the museum holds 45 drawings and more than 200 prints by the artist in its own collection and shows them in the exhibition.
• Polish Poster. The Collection - Part 3 - the current rotation of the permanent display at the Poster Museum in Wilanów (National Museum in Warsaw): Polish posters from Young Poland (Młoda Polska) to modern graphic design, from a collection of nearly 36,000 objects.
• Satire and Comics by Jan Matejko - a current exhibition in the Kraków section of muzea.waw.pl: the satirical drawings with which Matejko commented on the world around him.

Museum profile: Museum of Caricature.