Joanna Concejo

(b. 1971) – a graphic artist, illustrator, author of picture books and children’s books.

Her work is often made in pencil and crayon, evoking Surrealism with – as it was put by Olga Tokarczuk, with whom Concejo collaborated – a vintage look.

She graduated from the Faculty of Printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań. She has lived in France since 1998. In 2002, she gained more recognition through her installation at the Busan Biennale in South Korea. She also has worked in collage and painting. In the years that followed, she showed her work at contemporary art exhibitions in France (in Chelles and in Paris) and in Germany (in Berlin).

In 2004, she took part in an exhibition of illustrators during the Children’s Book Fair (La fiera del libro per ragazzi) in Bologna, one of the world’s largest and most important shows of art for children. Since then, she has participated in numerous international collective exhibitions, including those in Italy, France and Iran.

In 2007, in Italy, Concejo had her second independently written and illustrated book released, Il signor Nessuno (translated into Polish in 2022 as ‘Pan Nikt’ [Mr Nobody], trans. Dorota Hartwich). The drawings on which the book’s illustrations were based had previously been awarded in the Calabria Incantata competition. In 2017, Concecjo published a picture book, ‘Kiedy dojrzeją porzeczki’ (When the Currants Ripen). In 2021, ‘M jak morze’ (S Is for the Sea) came out, a book weaving illustrations and long portions of text, in which a lonely search for identity plays an important role.

Joanna Concejo works with Le Petit Atelier de Paris and Italian illustration schools Ars in Fabula (Macerata) and Scuola Internazionale d’Illustrazione di Sarmede. She illustrates adult literature: Marek Bieńczyk’s ‘Książę w cukierni’ (Prince in the Pastry Shop) with her illustrations was awarded in the graphic arts category of Best Book of the Year 2013 by the Polish Section of IBBY. She and Olga Tokarczuk co-authored ‘Zagubiona dusza’ (Lost Soul), a word-and-picture book that received the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2018 in the Fiction category, and ‘Pan Wyrazisty’ (Mr Vivid), which the author calls a picture book. In 2023, she won the Grand Prix of the Illustration Triennale in Tallinn. Books illustrated by Concejo: ‘Dym’ (Smoke) by Anton Fortes and Lost Soul by Olga Tokarczuk were placed on the list of White Crows of the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich.