Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.

Join today

Already a member?
Log in

Tributes have been paid to an “exceptional” artist killed in a shooting in Krakow on Saturday that left six people dead.

Izabela Wozna, 53, was killed when the shooter drove into a market square in the city at around 3pm and opened fire. Three other people, including two women and one man, believed to be the shooter’s close family, were found dead at the suspect’s home.

The gunman, named by prosecutors as Michał Oksiński, has since died following a shootout with police.

Wozna had just opened an exhibition the day before the attack, local media reported. She was also a mother-of-four, including 11-year-old twins, and was deeply involved in her community of Chodzież.

“She derived a great deal of satisfaction from her art and painting. She exhibited her work all over Europe. And she was certainly happy. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Jacek Gursz, the mayor of Chodzież, told TVN24.

The 53-year-old mother-of-four was attending the opening of an exhibition of her art on Friday when she was killed the day after (Facebook/izabela.wozna.522)

“She had her own places, friends, daily affairs, plans and dreams. She was present in the lives of other people – and that is why her passing so deeply affects us, the residents of Chodzież.”

He added: “In moments like these, we become particularly aware of how fragile life is and how much closeness, the presence of another person, and simple kindness mean.”

A special concert in her memory would also be held on Thursday, he added.

Katarzyna Rzepecka-Andrzejak, a councillor of the Wielkopolska Regional Assembly, also shared a tribute to the artist.

“Wielkopolska has lost an exceptional person. Izabela Wozna from Rataj near Chodziez died in Saturday’s tragedy in Krakow. She was a painter of great talent. She traveled to Krakow to showcase her paintings,” she wrote.

A vigil was held in memory of the victims (Getty)

Wozna had travelled over 400km to attend the opening of her exhibition that had opened in Krakow on Slawkowska Street.

She is one of the first people to have been named among the victims as a silent vigil was held this week for those who were killed.

The suspect’s younger sister Magdalena Oksinska, 21, is also reported to have been killed after being shot twice, the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts confirmed. Oskinska was a third-year-student there. It added that one of its employee’s sisters had also been shot twice.

”Nothing will ever be like before. The delicate tissue of our academic community was painfully wounded,” the academy said in a statement Sunday.

“Magdalena Oksinska, 21 years old, a queer person, was an absolutely talented painter, photographer, poet and writer,” architect Pavko Krajka wrote in a social media post accompanied by pictures of her paintings.

“Her death is a great loss for Krakow, Polish, European and queer culture.”

Oksiński, who died of his injuries in hospital, is reported to have been motivated by far-right ideology.