Asia Sztencel is a first-generation Polish immigrant, a Brooklyn-based artist. Sztencel is inspired by the role of the artist in the community, emphasizing sensitivity, and a respectful approach.
Through conceptual practice and traditional craft, her work offers a personal exploration within the larger narrative of the immigration experience. Highlighting the landscape as a narrative, dissecting the feelings of exile, recall, and longing.
As a lauded artist-educator, she engages diverse communities in Brooklyn, Queens, Los Angeles, and Poland through her social practice art projects.
In her current joint art residencies at Artists Alliance Inc. and Residency Unlimited, she will focus on the subject of metaphysical light in landscape painting.
In 2019, Sztencel’s community art project, Welcome to My Pico, was supported by the Polish Embassy in Los Angeles, 18th Street Arts Center Culture Mapping 90404 Project, and the City of Santa Monica. Her 2016 project, You Can’t Carry Your Landscape With You, was awarded the Grant Award for Artists from the Polish Cultural Institute of NYC, the Emigration Museum in Poland, and the Consulate General of Poland, NYC. In 2015, Sztencel was awarded a grant from the Culture Shock Foundation, Warsaw, Poland, for her workshop series in Greenpoint. In 2004, she received the Young Artist’s Scholarship from the Mayor of Krakow Award, Krakow, Poland.
Artist residencies include 2019 Artist-in-Residence, Wladyslaw Strzeminski’s Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland; 2018 Artist-in-Residence, Burton Chace Park, Marina Del Rey, CA; 2018 Artist-in-Residence, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA; 2017 Artist-in-Residence, Residency Unlimited, Brooklyn, NY; 2017 Artist-in-Residence, The Hollows, Brooklyn, NY; 2016 Artist-in-Residence, Kurier Plus, Polish Weekly Newspaper, Brooklyn, NY.
Select Permanent Collections: Rosenthal Library, Queens, NY; CUNY Queens College, NY; Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, Brooklyn, NY; Aleksandra & Mateusz Landsberg, Private Collection, Los Angeles, CA; Marian Duch, Private Collection, Brooklyn, NY; Dr. Andrew Lubczyk, Private Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Education: 2013 Master of Fine Arts, Social Practice, CUNY Queens College, NY; 2003 Master of Fine Arts, Printmaking, Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland.
Asia Sztencel’s residency is made possible through AAI’s ongoing partnership with Residency Unlimited.