Waldemar Kolbusz is a contemporary Australian artist who embarked on a pivotal journey through the Arizona and Nevada desert in the late 1990’s searching for something.

Away from home and alien in a foreign landscape, his ensuing first solo exhibition Freeway has since developed into a vast and developing practice – and signalled the start of Kolbusz’s commitment to painting. Before that there was work in studios in Provence and Portugal, conversations with a sculptor in New York and a lifelong spirited artistic fascination. Now there is also a return to figurative works and a widening of thinking in Kolbusz’s practice.

The journey certainly continues. Today, painting from KolbuszSpace: a multi – purpose studio, gallery and project space under Kolbusz’s direction in inner city Perth. For large walls for international businesses, for deliciously vacant spaces in five star hotels and international casinos, tete-a-tete with the hushed, lunch-time table-talk in savvy, city restaurants, beside the bed-side tables of affluent collectors – up against garage walls, for exhibitions and art fairs nationally and abroad.

Kolbusz is a weaver of moods, his yarn a palette of hues.

At 27, Kolbusz left finance and now this ex-accountant has no regrets swapping ballpoints for brushes. What began as a yearlong investigation for Kolbusz was met with art world approval. In 1996 he resigned completely from accounting to pursue a full-time commitment to painting.

Waldemar Kolbusz continues to challenge himself and expand the role of painter, director, and curator under one roof at KolbuszSpace.

Throughout his career, Kolbusz has explored the tension between ideal form and disruption—where ideas of perfection are not goals, but questions posed to the viewer. His diverse practice reflects an investigation with how perfection operates in contemporary culture — frequently offering a surface that is then cleverly undermined, prompting reflection rather than resolution. Kolbusz’s works are described as bold and emotive, but they are also deeply considered.

His pieces have been widely commissioned and collected nationally and internationally. One art critic admires Kolbusz’s work for its “intertextuality”, while Belle magazine has used it for rather less conceptual reasons.

Kolbusz’s artworks truly seduce the viewer. His large canvases in oils combine rich colours which are often butted against deep dark stained backdrops. By using combinations of translucent colour and wax encaustic swipes of impasto texture, he achieves canvases busting for attention. Figurative works tease with images of perfection, but then something else.

His diverse practice reflects a fascination with how perfection operates in contemporary culture—frequently offering a surface that is then cleverly undermined, prompting reflection rather than resolution.

Born in Perth to Polish parents, Kolbusz is a risk-taker with tireless energy. His instincts drew him to art at an early age. But Kolbusz remains primarily self-taught, abandoning visual arts studies at UWA and again more recently at Curtin University to start his gallery KolbuszSpace where he mentors and exhibits noteworthy, emerging artists. He paints full-time and exhibits regularly.

Isadora Noble: Art Busting for Attention

Collections

AFG, West Perth
DUXTON HOTEL, Melbourne
VOGUE LIVING AUSTRALIA MAGAZINE, Melbourne
PURSLOWE FUNERAL DIRECTORS, Perth
BALTHAZAAR RESTAURANT, Perth
SPOWERS ARCHITECTS – Architect’s Collection, Perth
FORREST HOTEL, Surry Hills
HARVEY NORMAN COMMERCIAL DIVISION, Sydney
PASPALE PEARLS – Broome & Melbourne
CAPITALAND RESIDENTIAL LTD, Singapore

Contact

STUDIO + gallery
KolbuszSpace, PERTH
2 Gladstone Street
PERTH WA 6000
email for appointment
hello@kolbuszspace.com
https://kolbuszspace.com/