Jan Sawka was born in 1946 in Poland. In 1977, he settled in New York to work as a set designer, printmaker, painter and sculptor. His work can be found in more than 60 museum collections including Pompidou Centre, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Israeli Museum, Jerusalem; Jagiellonian University Collection, Krakow and National Museum, Warsaw.

He has had more than 70 solo shows including one in 1991 at the National Gallery, Krakow. Among the numerous awards and honors received he was recently awarded the Premio Lorenzo il Magnifico Gold Medal in multi-media at the 2003 Florence Biennale.

He has received numerous public commissions including The Tower of Light, (an obelisk to be erected in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), The Essen Towers (an installation consisting of four obelisks to be erected in Essen, Germany), and The Peace Monument for Jerusalem.