Exhibition of airplane caricatures by Andrzej M. Olejniczak

This year’s edition of Stalowa Wola’s popular Sikorski Model Show is fast approaching. Once again, the organizers have prepared a number of attractions for both the youngest and slightly older fans of modeling and history. A model exchange, demonstrations by reconstruction groups, presentations of historical vehicles, a scientific and discussion panel and film screenings are just some of the events accompanying the eighth National Model Contest.
One of the attractions of this year’s edition will also be the presentation of aviation caricatures by well-known Kalisz cartoonist Andrzej M. Olejniczak. The exhibition of nearly thirty works will feature artistically and satirically transformed images of the most famous and interesting aviation constructions. In addition to foreign aircraft, Polish ones will be presented, including the PZL P.23 KARAŚ airliner, the LUBLIN R-XIIID companion, the PZL P11C fighter and the famous Mielec production – PZL P.37B ŁOŚ bomber.
Andrzej m. Olejniczak’s drawings will be on display on June 11 at the Central Industrial District Museum building during the Sikorski Model Show 2022.

Andrzej M. Olejniczak was born in May 1967 in Kalisz. As soon as he learned to walk and to communicate with the world around him, he began to draw. In this case, the word ‘draw’ should be put in very, very large inverted commas. With an incomprehensible delight, he took to scribbling NCSD, (What You Could) with the help of CBPR (What Was Under Your Hand). The walls of the flat, the furniture, the then fashionable kitchen cloths – absolutely anything could become material. He drew, among other things, angels, which already at that time might have suggested his later interests. A flying object is a flying object, whether feathered or made of canvas, wood or aluminium. He made his first sketches, watercolours and poster paintings as early as primary school – these works gained recognition from his art teachers. During his secondary school years, he cooperated with the Visual Arts Cultural Centre ‘Wieża Ciśnień’ (‘Pressure Tower’), where art classes were conducted by professors from the Kalisz branch of A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Fascinated by the work of Boris Vallejo and Christos Achilleos, he began to enter the world of fantasy, i.e. chivalry, gnomes, dragons, harpies, and repeatedly translated it into works with similar themes. His passion for aviation and his adoration of Janusz Christy’s ‘Kajko i Kokosz’ comic book series resulted in caricatures of his beloved aircraft. They were first published in the monthly magazine ‘Aeroplan’, and since 1997 they have appeared in the pages of the historical-modelling magazine ‘MINI REPLIKA’, of which the artist was a co-author. In its pages he presented reviews of models, reports on their construction, illustrated with a large number of photographs. He is also the author of colourful aircraft silhouettes, and in 2006 published materials on Polish F-16s. For 15 years, he has been creating ‘named’ caricatures of F-16 aircraft for pilots selected as Pilots of the Year at 32 Base of Tactical Aviation in Łask. He designs aircraft paint schemes, illustrates books, designs company logos, decals, and is also involved in aerial photography.