Roman Opałka, Polish painter, graphic artist, drafter, photographer, author of book illustrations, posters and others.
Born in 1931 in Abbeville-Saint-Lucien (France), he died in 2011 in Rome.
His brother is the outstanding graphic artist Henryk Opałka.

Having spent WW2 with his parents and siblings in Germany, after the war, he returned to France; and in 1964, Opałka family was repatriated to Poland.
Roman Opałka studied at Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts (then Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych) in Łódź (1949-50) and later in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1951-57.)

Initially, he focused on realistic compositions in order to switch his attention to matter painting at the end of 1950s and beginning of 1960s. At the same time, he worked on numerous graphic designs: posters, postcards, book covers, illustrations, medals as well as printmaking. In this field he won his earliest awards in Poland and abroad, including: Grand Prix of the International Graphic Art Biennale in Bradford in 1968 and Grand Prix of the International Graphic Art Biennale in Kraków in 1969.

Since 1965, he has been working on his most important series entitled „Opałka 1965 /1 – ∞”, one of the most significant displays of the conceptual art movements in the 20th century painting. The so called “counted paintings” brought the artist recognition of critics and collectors around the world. In 1977, Opałka moved to France and never came back to Poland although he maintained ties with the country.

Two-times participant of Sao Paulo Biennale, in 1969 and 1977, in 1995, his works were exhibited in Polonia pavilion during the Venice Biennale (he participated in this most important art review several more times as his works were part of collective exhibitions.) In 1977, his paintings were presented during documenta in Kassel.

Roman Opałka is the most famous and the most highly regarded Polish contemporary painter and his works are in the most important art collections in the world while the prices for his paintings are record setting. They appear on the international art market sporadically, every few years, most often they are individual “counted paintings” or “travel postcards,” it is however very rare to come across the works that represent an earlier period, before “Opałka 1965 /1 – ∞” project started, nonetheless, they are an important addition and introduction to the main work.