Marek Czarnecki

Marek Czarnecki is an artist, iconographer, restorer and community scholar for Connecticut’s Polish-American Community. Originally from Bristol CT, Marek graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

An unexpected commission began his three decades studying historical Byzantine iconography. In 1996, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts awarded him its Painting Fellowship, which he received for a second time in 2004.

An apprenticeship grant from the CT Traditional Arts program allowed him to study for 15 years under noted Russian Orthodox icon painter Ksenia Pokrovsky, with whom he taught workshops nationally. His icons are marked by a loyalty to canonical criteria, historical materials and a high level of craftsmanship. They serve many diverse ethnic communities, building an ecumenical bridge between east and west.

His icons hang in homes and public spaces across the US, including the Franciscan University of Steubenville, The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield IL, St. Thomas More Chapel at Yale University and St Meinrad’s Seminary. the United States Council of Catholic Bishops choice his icon of “Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest” to commemorate the year of the priest; over a million copies were printed and distributed internationally. He has restored hundreds of church statues, murals, and lectures on the importance of sacred art in American immigrant communities, which disappear with each church closing.

He has curated several exhibitions on the art and material culture of Connecticut’s Polish community and was featured in the WGBY documentary “Sharing Stories: Polish Life in Our Valley”. Interviews and articles about the iconographer have appeared in the New York Times, The Hartford Courant, CT Public Radio, The St Anthony Messenger, The Catholic Digest, Our Sunday Visitor et al. He continues to work and teach out of his studio in Meriden CT