I am Bartosz Beda, a painter based in Dallas, Texas. I was born in Poland in 1984, and I have been painting since I was seven years old. I trained at art school in Lodz, earned my BA in 2011 and my MA in Fine Art from Manchester in 2012. My work has been exhibited in Europe and across the United States. This website is my portfolio: the paintings, the series they belong to, and the exhibitions where they can be seen in person.

I paint abstract figurative paintings. The human figure stands at the center of my work, held between representation and abstraction. I am not interested in a figure that sits still and describes itself. I build the figure in layers of marks and color, and I let parts of it dissolve. What remains is a presence rather than a portrait. Each painting series is a chapter in that search, with its own problem to solve. When a series stops asking new questions, I start another one.

My current series is Apogee, begun in July 2026 after a five week trip to Italy. Standing under the ceiling frescoes of Rome and Florence, I kept returning to their foreshortened figures, painted so the eye travels into deep space instead of stopping at a flat surface. Apogee takes that device as its starting point. The figures are seen from the feet. I build them from photographs I take of myself in foreshortened poses, and I paint them with direct, aggressive brushwork. Before Apogee came Mirage, a series of mostly abstract landscapes that grew out of my residency in San Angelo, Texas. Earlier series, including Owing to the Absence and Echoes of Seasons, are documented on this site with full image galleries.

Exhibitions are where the paintings meet their audience, and this autumn has been a full one. Owing to the Absence, my solo exhibition of 32 ink on paper works, opens on November 6, 2026 at the Burnell R. Roberts Triangle Gallery in Dayton, Ohio. In October, two small Apogee paintings were shown in Belgrade, Serbia, in The Eight Art Encounters at the House of King Peter I Cultural Center. In 2025 I completed the Edwards Trust Residency in Painting at Angelo State University, which concluded with my solo exhibition Echoes Vitae. News about exhibitions, residencies, and new work is posted on the News page of this site.

Most of the paintings in these series are available to collect. I sell my originals directly from my Dallas studio through my online store, where each painting is listed with its size, medium, and price. Every original leaves the studio with a certificate of authenticity. Paintings ship worldwide, packed in the studio and sent with tracking. Selling direct matters to me. The person who buys a painting knows exactly where it came from, and I know where it went.

Dallas is also where I teach. I founded Art Be You, an art academy offering painting classes and workshops, and I run Execute Magazine, an online magazine about artists and their work. Teaching keeps my own painting honest. Explaining a decision at the easel, week after week, is a discipline no studio wall can give you.

My work has been listed in the Catlin Art Guide and shortlisted for the Saatchi New Sensations. I have held a fellowship at the Fondazione per l’Arte in Rome and a residency at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Pennsylvania. The full record is on my CV page.

The site is organized the way I think about the work. The painting series come first, each with its own page and full image gallery. The paintings can also be browsed by year, from 2012 to today. My biography tells the longer story, the CV page holds the exhibition and residency record, and the press page collects articles and reviews. If you are new to the work, the current series are the right door in. If you already know it, the News page is where the new chapters appear first.

Start with the painting series. Each one is a chapter, and together they tell the story so far. For questions about a painting, an exhibition, or a commission, contact me directly.