Wiktor Szostalo · Bio

Wiktor Szostalo

I was born in a small town in the Soviet Republic of Lithuania of a Russian mother and Polish father. When I was six, we moved to Poland, and I became a trilingual kid.  My mom was a nurse and usually worked 2 full time jobs, so from her I picked up the habit of hard work, which on occasions could mean "when clients demanded it."  I sometimes worked for a week, only breaking to sleep every other night.  My theologian father attended church every day and read to me and my brother the lives of the saints nearly every night until I was 11 or maybe even 12.

Our favorites were the lives of martyrs who braved death to stick to their beliefs. With those strong beliefs I became an anti-communist dissident while attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, in southern Poland. Despite that I did manage to graduate in 1978 with an MFA in painting and sculpture.

When the big labor strikes of the Solidarity movement, headed by legendary Lech Walesa, started in 1980, I joined in; how else would I follow my beliefs?  I became one of the local leaders of the movement, and eventually a national leader. Then came the crackdown on the movement, and that landed me in jail for 5 months.

"Invited" by the regime to leave Poland I became a political refugee, and in 1983 I arrived in St. Louis, Missouri with $35 in my pocket.  St. Louis is still my home today.

I was denied my first application for a factory job, paying $3.35 an hour, on the grounds that as a recent labor organizer I might stir up trouble.  But that led me back to my art. Befriended nuns told me about a St. Louis church looking for a sculpture. I had no car, so they drove me there, and I just knew I had to get that job.

I researched the life of their obscure patron Saint, drew many designs, and offered a stainless-steel sculpture for half the normal price. I got the job, but I didn't know how to weld, and I knew even less about stainless steel, but I learned.

Around 1987 I heard about another St. Louis church looking for a black saint. They wanted the Peruvian, St. Martin de Porres who was the Illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed black slave and who grew up in poverty. Since there was no internet or Google, I had to go visit a few local Black churches to see how other people would portray Africans and African Americans. Well, there were no portrayals of anybody Black in any of the churches.

Within 2 years I produced a 7-figure 30-inch-tall Afro-centric Nativity set, a church-size Crucifix, stations of the cross, a Holy Family, miniatures for people to wear as necklaces, and for a solid 10 years that's all I did, other than painting and showing my art in galleries here and there and running a few marathons, including Boston.

Later, I did a 14-foot tall welded stainless-steel Angel of Harmony with musical wings consisting of a hundred windchimes. The Angel shown as a Black man with children of different races and cultures is placed next to St. Louis Basilica Cathedral.  It has become a St. Louis landmark and pushed me towards large stainless and corten steel sculptures, both liturgical and public displayed in many cities, both here and abroad.

In 2005 my interest in preserving the environment caused me to immerse myself in environmental art, under the descriptive title, The Tree Hugger Project which caused me to become known here and abroad.

These "biomass" projects went to 3 UN Climate Summits, and were installed in cities such as New York, Vienna, Warsaw,  Copenhagen, Darmstadt, Moscow and Étretat on the Normandy Coast in France. And the Tree Hugger Project is still active.  I am looking for ways to premiere another biomass installation on St Peter's Square in Rome and possibly to travel all the way to Brazil.

Working with my agent, John Bergstrom, at www.Hillstream.com, I continue to produce large-scale stainless steel liturgical work, such as a recent St. Francis Preaching to the Birds under a Windchime Tree for Old Mission St. Luis Ray n Oceanside, California, and Our Lady, the Untier of Knots for the Catholic Center at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

RESUME:

Wiktor Szostalo, MFA, 1978, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland

Works in stainless steel, glass, bronze and other media

EDUCATION
2003        Glass blowing, private instruction at Third Degree Glass Studio. St. Louis, Missouri.
1998        Kiln casting glass; private instruction with Keith Seibert, Royal College,

                 London, England.
1983        2 week workshop on welding stainless steel with Marian Owczarski,

                 St. Mary’s College, Orchard Lake, MI
1979        Street Performance workshop with Ewa Benesz, Former actress of Jerzy Grotowski’s

                “Laboratory Theater”
1978         M.F.A Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland

COMMISSIONS

2016     - Our Lady the Untier of Knots, an ongoing project including a 6’ Corten and stainless

                Our Lady with two 5 ½’ Angels and a Peace Garden, Holy Family Church, Nazareth, TX

2013     - The Welcoming Christ- 8’ tall welded stainless steel sculpture of the Resurrected Christ

                 extending arms to His People, commission St. John and Paul Church, Altoona, IA

2012     - Three “Forest Fairies” and “The Line” with 17 characters  - Tree Hugger Project

                 installations commissioned by the International Forest Art Festival, Darmstadt,

                 Germany;

              - “Two Whales”- over 50’ long, welded Corten steel sculptures commissioned

                 by the Mayor of Rewal, Poland; installed at the town’s Central Square;

              -“Intermission- the Viola”- second sculpture of the planned four to become

                 a “string quartet”, welded and painted stainless and Corten steels,

                 13’ tall, commissioned by Regional Center of Culture, Kolobrzeg, Poland;

2011      -The Blessed John Paul II 8’ tall, welded stainless stel, St. Margaret of Scotland, Seattle;

               - “Intermission- the Cello”- first of the planned four, to become a “string quartet”,

                 welded and painted stainless and Corten steels,

                 13’ tall, commissioned by Regional Center of Culture, Kolobrzeg, Poland;

2008     - Expansion of the 2000 “Millennium Memorial”,  a tribute to 1000 years of Christianity

                in Poland and Polish- German Reconciliation; welded and painted stainless steel;

2007     - “At Long Last I Got To Like Myself the Way I Am” a welded and painted stainless

                steel sculpture, commissioned by Novol Corp, Poznan, Poland,

                the sculpture was produced in St. Louis, MO and shipped to Poland;

               -The Crucifix- a 10’ welded stainless steel liturgical sculpture for Christ the Redeemer

                Church, Houston, TX

2006     -“Our Lady of Perpetual Help” 8’ tall welded stainless steel and cast glass sculpture-

                 Shrine; St. Elizabeth Seton Church, Carmel, Indiana

2005     - 2 sculptures in cast glass and welded stainless steel for the Catholic 9/11 memorial

                at St. Joseph Chapel, NY, NY