Henry Orlik (b. 1947, Ankum, Germany) is a British surrealist painter whose imaginative work reflects a lifelong search for meaning shaped by displacement and urban experience. Of Polish/Belarussian heritage, raised in postwar England after arriving from Germany as an infant, Orlik studied art in Swindon and Cheltenham before emerging in the early 1970s with exhibitions at London’s Acoris Gallery alongside surrealist greats such as Magritte and Dalí.

From 1980 to 1985, he lived and worked in the U.S., with New York’s architecture and street life profoundly influencing his visionary cityscapes. Disillusioned with the commercial art world, he returned to London and retreated from public life. Following a debilitating stroke in 2022 and the loss of many works, his art is now being rediscovered by a new generation, with recent exhibitions celebrating the power and foresight of his lifelong practice.