Concept Artist Jakub Rozalski’s style and vision conjures a powerful and haunting alternate version of the past to life. A world that feels both incredibly familiar, and simultaneously otherworldly.

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HM: Tell us a bit about your background.

JAKUB: I was born on the Polish West Coast, and grew up in a small rural village surrounded by forests and lakes. I’ve loved drawing and painting as long as I can remember, and have had a lifelong interest in fantasy and science fiction, so this creative direction was rather a natural course of events. While I do have a fine art background and education, I would say that I’m self-taught. I always read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, and studied old masters painting. All of this certainly contributed, but it’s a process that lasts a lifetime and there was no single special event.

HM: Your art seems to dwell in an anachronistic alternate world full of dichotomies. This feeling carries through to how you compose images, how you apply paint and color. How did you develop this style?

JAKUB: I was always interested in creating my own original projects and worlds, over visualizing other people’s ideas. I think this is exactly what an artist should try to achieve. It is a hard path, but gives more satisfaction and self-realization, in my opinion.

History is my great passion and has always interested me, as well as other cultures and mythology. Everything I love gets combined. The countryside, nineteenth century paintings, extraordinary giant machines, wild nature and animals. It all comes together to create a unique kind of story, showing everyday situations in an unusual environment.

Artistically, I think the greatest impact on my work is the nineteenth century painters, like: Józef Chełmonski, Józef Brandt Brand, Isaac Levitan, and Ivan Shishkin.

HM: What is the overarching narrative for the 1920 series, and what drew you to this specific time and setting for these paintings?

JAKUB: Well, I love this period, beginning of the twentieth century, when tradition clashed with modernity, and the world was still full of mysteries and secrets.

However, the whole 1920+ project and world was initially based on historical events: the Battle of Warsaw in 1920 and the Polish–Soviet War (February 1919 – March 1921). This battle is considered by many historians to be one of the most important in the world’s history, since it changed the fate of Europe and stopped the Red Revolution. Yet, hardly anyone knows about it. This era is also the last time in history when cavalry was used on such a scale, and played a key role in battle.

I think you can also find in that era some kind of longing for the world and living life closer to nature, which was being aggressively taken away by technology and civilization. Also, I wanted show war from the perspective and impact of regular, normal people. More human, maybe not so epic and heroic.

I wanted to combine the classic motifs, using the realistic painting style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and adding my own concepts and ideas, to tell something of the history and culture of my motherland and Europe in an original, alternative and interesting way for both the audience and myself as a artist.

HM: What is your dream project to work on?

JAKUB: Well, a TV series or movie, based on, and set in, my world 1920+… that would be awesome!

Currently, and for a few years now, I’ve been focused only on my personal projects. I’m working on a video game (Iron Harvest) set in the world 1920+ and a new VR game full of giants from my paintings. I also have a lot of film proposals I’ve been developing. I can say that I’m lucky to work only on my own projects, not someone else’s.

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You can see more of Jakub’s work here:

https://www.artstation.com/artist/jakubrozalski

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