He was born in Tarnów in 1972, he studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Krakow University of Technology in the years 1992–1994 and then at the Faculty of Painting at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1994-1999. He lives and works in Krakow.

Select awards and prizes:

2006
The first place in the ranking of 100 most important young artists of the world of the modern art magazine “Flash Art”. Winner of the European Vincent Van Gogh modern art award (The Vincent Award), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

1999
Grand Prix 34th National Painting Competition “Bielska Jesień”, Bielska Gallery BWA, Poland

Select solo exhibitions:

2010
Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland

2009
CAC – Centro de Arte Contemporàneo, Malaga, Spain K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen – im Ständehaus, Dusseldorf, Germany (the exhibition accompanied by the first-night show of the feature film Swineherd 2009)

2007
Lata walki / Anni di Lotta, Zachęta Gallery, Warsaw; Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy

2006
Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Holland

2003
Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

2002
Pokaż ręce. Chodż bliżej. Patrz. (Show Me Your Hands. Come Closer. Look.) Gallery Foksal Foundation, Warsaw, Poland

Select group exhibitions:

2010
Johnen Galerie, Conversation Pieces. A Chamber Play, Act III, Scene 3, Berlin, Germany

2009
MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, The Reach of Realism, North Miami FL, USA Palazzo Grassi/Punta della Dogana, Mapping the Studio: Works from the Francois Pinault Collection, Venice, Italy

2008
Life on Mars, The 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, USA

2007
Airs de Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

2006
The Vincent 2006, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Holland Imagens em Pintura/Images in Painting, Museu Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, Portugal W samym centrum uwagi (10): Wilhelm Sasnal – USA, CSW Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw

2005
The Triumph of Painting. Part Two, Saatchi Gallery, London

2002
Nach der Wirklichkeit III – Painting on the move, Kunsthalle Basel, Bazylea, Szwajcaria
Urgent Painting, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France

More at: www.raster.art.pl/galeria/artysci/sasnal/sasnal.htm
and www.culture.pl/pl/culture/artykuly/os_sasnal_wilhelm

photo by Bartosz Siedlik