Biography
I was born in 1979 in Poland where I studied painting, drawing and sculpture at the Institute of Art in Lublin. I graduated in 2004 with MA degree in oil painting. I began my artistic career already during studies and I have consequently pursued my interests in painting, installation and performance.
Inspired by the philosophies of Zygmunt Bauman and Jean Baudrillard among others, I would describe my approach to art as a continuous exploration of the conditions of modern society. To reflect the liquidity of the times, my works deliberately move between genres and formal styles trying to avoid “one word” classifications of my art. My works have included anarchist installations (such as my graduation piece Shelter for the Homeless, a house built from my paintings, which surpassed the requirements of a conservative Institute of Art in Lublin, which required students to present their works as a classic painting cycle), experiments with heat (as in my installation Dreamtime, where I heated 300kg of stones to 500 degrees C in a self-made stove and transferred them into the gallery space, exuding the uncomfortable aura of heat and humidity) or quests to find a new form of expression (three dimensional painting Pietà, containing organic elements such as boiling liquids which is a multi-layered work commenting on issues such as solitude, isolation and lack of security; finalist of Art Off The Wall, Melbourne 2009) .
I like embedding elements of tension and impermanence in my works such as installing a landmine in the yolk of an egg in my three dimensional painting Breakfast (finalist of Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize in 2008) or allowing the movements of the airplane and conveyor belts to paint the canvases (as in The Last Supper which documents my trip from Poland to Australia and which saw me smuggle the food painted in oil paint and closed in boxes made of canvases).
In May 2010 I held a solo show Happiness. Buy It Now at NG Art Gallery in Sydney which saw the whole gallery transformed into a custom-made, 1:1 scale surgical theatre/LAB.
Curriculum Vitae
Personal details:
Born in 1979 in Poland
Lives and works in Sydney, Australia and Lublin, Poland
Education:
| 1999 – 2004 | Department of Fine Arts, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland M.A. degree in Visual Arts Areas of specialization: Painting, History of Art |
Solo Exhibitions:
| May 2010 | Happiness. Buy it Now – installation at NG Art Gallery, Sydney |
| December 2004 | Dreamtime – installation at the Lublin Performance Center; the work inaugurated a new cycle of the works of young artists involved in sound, digital art, performance and new media |
| March 2004 | Black and White Eagle – performance at Biala Gallery in Lublin, Poland |
| June 2003 | Ciecierzyn – Uluru – performance at Biala Gallery in Lublin, Poland |
| April 2003 | Lost and Found – exhibition of paintings at Jazzgot Gallery in Warsaw, Poland |
Group Exhibitions:
| January 2010 | Arts Mobile Sydney, Wynyard Park, Sydney |
| September 2009 | My Heart, My Food, My Country, NG Art Gallery , Sydney |
| June 2009 | Tovot Squat, Tovot Squat, Lublin, Poland |
| April 2009 | A Bar to Call Home, NG Art Gallery, Sydney |
| April 2009 | Art Off The Wall, Royal Exhibition Centre, Melbourne |
| March 2009 | Underground to Aboveground, NG Art Gallery, Sydney |
| December 2008 | Super Seed – Fraser Studios, Sydney |
| December 2007 | Scale – Wilson Street Gallery, Sydney |
| April 2003 | University Gallery, Lublin, Poland |
Prizes and Residencies:
| April 2009 | Art Off The Wall, Royal Exhibition Centre, Melbourne |
| October – December 2008 | Artist residency at Fraser Studios, Chippendale, Sydney |
| September 2008 | Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Sydney (finalist) |
| August 2008 | Mosman Art Prize, Sydney (finalist) |
Media:
Underlined articles link to JPG files
| 2010 | Andrew Taylor “Happy to make you unsettled”, The Sun Herald, May 16, page 31.
Pitt Helen, “Skeletons in hot pursuit of 3D happiness”, The Sydney Morning Herald, May 10, page 10. |
| 2009 | Crosley Ellen, “The Underground Above Ground”, Brag, March 30, page 36.
“It’s the breakfast of art champions”, MX, March 23, page 6. |
