Wilhelm Sasnal was born in Tarnów, Poland, in 1972. He studied architecture for two years at the Polytechnic, Kraków, beginning in 1992, and then became a painting student at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie, Kraków. While there, he helped form an artist’s collective that exhibited together as the Ładnie Group until 2000. Ironically named after the Polish word meaning “pretty” or “nice,” the members made paintings of their contemporary, often banal surroundings, using a deskilled aesthetic that countered the style valued by their instructors. Sasnal finished his studies in 1999, and then worked briefly for advertising companies in Kraków while also making paintings, graphic novels (his strips are regularly published in “Machina” and “Przekroj”, two Polish periodicals), photographs, and films.