Marzena Nowak - Galerija Gregor Podnar.
Marzena Nowak - Galerija Gregor Podnar.
Marzena Nowak - Galerija Gregor Podnar.
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<strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong><br />
PORTFOLIO<br />
Lindenstr. 35 | 10969 Berlin | Germany | tel. +49 30 259 346 51 | fax +49 30 259 346 52 | berlin@gregorpodnar.com | www.gregorpodnar.com<br />
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FILMS - SELECTION<br />
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Untitled (Lines)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 5 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2002<br />
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Untitled (Water)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2002<br />
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Untitled (Eyelashes)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2003<br />
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Untitled (Mirror)<br />
Digital b&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2003<br />
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Untitled (Szwalnia)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 5 min, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2004<br />
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Untitled (Cosmos)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 30 sec, looped, ed. of 5 +AP, 2004<br />
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Untitled (Licking)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 47 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2009<br />
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Untitled (Tear Trajectory)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 4 sec, ed. of 5 +AP, 2009<br />
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Untitled (Hand)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 1 min 59 sec, ed. of 5 +AP, 2010<br />
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Untitled (Mizianie)<br />
B&w video on DVD, duration: 2 min 3 sec, looped, ed. of 5 + AP, 2010<br />
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Breznieniowka<br />
Digital video, duration 2 min 33 sec, ed of 5 + AP, 2012<br />
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PHOTOGRAPHS - SELECTION<br />
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Untitled (Glove)<br />
B&w print, 32 x 27,7 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2009<br />
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Untitled (Waves)<br />
B&w print, 26 x 34,5 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2010<br />
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Untitled (Open Mouth)<br />
B&w print, 64 x 46 cm, framed, ed. of 4 + AP, 2011<br />
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OBJECTS - SELECTION<br />
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Untitled (green ribbon)<br />
Paint on steel, dim variable, 2011<br />
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Untitled (small thotem)<br />
Thread, wooden part of furniture, found children blocks, 48 cm long, 2011<br />
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Untitled (pink balls)<br />
Acrylic on steel, glass, alabaster, diameter from 3 cm till 12 cm, 2011<br />
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Space between big and second foot toe as keyhole<br />
Steel, 4 x 1,3 x 5 cm, 2009<br />
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Two belts taken from mens and women's trousers<br />
Dimension Variable, cut out parts of trousers, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Cuffs)<br />
Cut out cuffs, dimension variable, 2011<br />
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Untilted (Klocki)<br />
Acrylic on wood and steel, dimension variable, 2011
Untitled (Hula Hoops)<br />
Acrylic on steel, bubble gum, ¢ 100 cm, 2011<br />
The idea was born when I found in my cellar the old childish hula hop made of wood– I repeated it in steel, painted<br />
it with acrylic on original colour and added a bubble gum as the memory of childhood. I took away the function of it<br />
by using very heavy material.<br />
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Untitled (Hula Hoop)<br />
Steel, thread ¢ 95 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Hula Hoop)<br />
Steel, thread, ¢ 95, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Big Circle)<br />
Steel, thread, ¢ 180 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Parquet Boards)<br />
Oil on parquet boards, 7 x 31 x 2 cm, 2010<br />
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Untitled (Red Ribbon)<br />
Acrylic on steel, 110 x 110 x 100 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Clips)<br />
Oil painting on steel, variable dimension, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Ball)<br />
Oil painting on steel, 80 x 80 x 80 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Ringo)<br />
Acrylic on steel, 70 x 80 x 80 cm, 2011<br />
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Space between<br />
Cut carpet, thread, 190 x 170 cm, 2009<br />
This work is about the space between. I cut out the space between two sofas usually taken by two people in the<br />
apartment. Sometimes space and distance is felt more deeply and physically – the space in every meaning. I think<br />
also that sadness is ornamental.<br />
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Exhibition view at <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, 2009<br />
Untitled<br />
Carpets, wood, electric motor, music box, ca. 250 x 190 x 15 cm, 2009<br />
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DRAWINGS, PAINTINGS - SELECTION<br />
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Untitled (small paintings)<br />
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (small paintings)<br />
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (small paintings)<br />
Acrylic, oil, pen on cut furniture, 18 x 13 cm, 2011<br />
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Untitled (Cutouts)<br />
Carbon copy traces on canvas, 200 x 600 cm, 2003<br />
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Untitled<br />
Pencil on paper, 61 x 43 cm, 2011<br />
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Detail<br />
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Exhibition view at <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, 2012<br />
Untitled<br />
Series of original postcards from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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Untitled (#6 + #8)<br />
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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Untitled (#5 + #10)<br />
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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Untitled (#1 + #11)<br />
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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Untitled (#9 + #4)<br />
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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Untitled (#7 + #2)<br />
Original postcard from Kasachstan, dry leaves, 33 x 28 cm each, 2012<br />
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EXHIBITION - SELECTION<br />
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Exhibition view at <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, Berlin, 2012
Exhibiition view, Art Station Foundation, Poznan, 2011<br />
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Exhibition view, Museum der Wünsche, MUMOK, Vienna,2011
Exhibition view, CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Torun, 2011<br />
<strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong>ʼs work is characterized by subtle structures in which the ephemeral and fragile attain form and<br />
become visible. Her reductive “images” for the mental and emotional are conceptually precise and at the same time<br />
poignantly sensual. The artist proves to be walking the line in many ways: in establishing a connection between<br />
painting, drawing, photography, video, sculptural objects and installation thematically, she also draws into focus the<br />
relation between personal experiences and socio-cultural framing conditions. A central role is played here by the<br />
transforming power of memory in which original facts merge with later projections and form new hybrid concepts.<br />
Characteristic for this are her painted metal objects that reference toys from childhood, like plastic balls, skipping<br />
ropes or wooden blocks and on first glance appear no different from them. However, the airiness, lightness and<br />
mobility so characteristic of playthings congeal into weighty symbols. In these painted objects, the past acquires a<br />
new tint and memories of play fuse with the playful aspects of memory.<br />
The field of tension indicated in these works between the joyful, playful self-reference, and the rules and norms<br />
determined by the games themselves as well as by the outside world circumscribes a specific thematic aspect<br />
within an oeuvre which is generally characterized by the making visible of ambiguous tensions.<br />
Therefore the artist also employs fragments of her own body in her videos, for example when she shows<br />
monotonous and repetitive gestures of her hands that tell us that physical proximity and distance, tenderness and<br />
pain as well as self-determination and loss of control are interlinked phenomena. She thus not only subverts clichéd<br />
polarizations of emotional states but also questions the notion that mental states are purely subjective experiences.<br />
In the repetitive-monotonous body language personal states of mind become manifested not only as issues of<br />
intimacy, but also as echoes of early memories of a hermetic social order and its effects on private life.<br />
Some of <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong>ʼs objects are reminiscent of former living spaces whose dimensions—that is, the spaces<br />
between them and her own body or the furniture and the walls—she reconstructs in the form of metal bars in<br />
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various lengths. In this way, the in-between and empty spaces take concrete form and at the same time their very<br />
presence indicates the absence of the real objects. Thus these works not only imagine absent true to scale space,<br />
but in their shapes memory also obtains concrete and, at the same time, abstract form.<br />
In another work with references on architecture she transforms one corner of the museum into an ostensibly<br />
domestic, intimate atmosphere through a carpet and circulating wall moulding. Yet, the carpet is merely a fragment,<br />
so that its presence recalls the absence of furniture and liveability. And upon further reflection, the circulating wood<br />
moulding emerges as a requisite that should protect the wall from human traces and thereby possesses a bodily<br />
resistant role. So the space suggests a homeliness that at once appears broken and is able to induce critical<br />
reflections on internalized perceptions about room and body.<br />
The role of memory in <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong>ʼs work also refers to the significance of time in. The passage of time and its<br />
function as measure for human actions informs the conceptual approach in her new paintings as well. Here the<br />
expressive and emotional aspects of color are subjected to an analytical painterly process executed on a<br />
prescreened base, making the act of painting appear like a kind of metric counting process. But within the<br />
geometric preset order a free play of colors and structures appears. Density and empty spaces combine into a<br />
disturbing spatial weave of a dynamic openness in which deviation and order become continually intertwined.<br />
These paintings display a systematic abstraction that still allows for the coincidental and the unpredictable. With<br />
their pixilated patterned structure they trace an arc to not only the patchwork of painted gaming pieces but also to<br />
the fragmented and patterned, colorful rug objects as well. Even their brightly colored splendor and their<br />
ornamental patterns contain gestures of repetition and monotony, thus reflecting memories of days gone by. For the<br />
viewer such references turn the individual works into a dynamic and open network and transform the interstices of<br />
the exhibition space into an in-between space with “weight.”<br />
Rainer Fuchs<br />
(Press release for solo exhibition CoCA Center of Contemporary, 2011)
Exhibition view, Salzburger Kunstverein 2011<br />
Ephemeral and fragile, but at the same time full of urgency and presence, this is how the work of the young Polish<br />
artist <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> is described. How does the artist manage to connect these contrasts in her videos,<br />
sculptures, and paintings? Everything originates with the body. But this body is not a thing or a tool, but rather a<br />
seismograph of the soul. Watching her videos, it seems as though the body is set in oscillations through a specific<br />
form of mental urgency. The artist chronicles these in small scenes of repeated gestures, thereby opening up a<br />
space of association for us that bespeaks pain, tenderness, and intimacy.<br />
Die Psyche ist ausgedehnt (The Psyche is Expansive) was the title of one of the artistʼs recent exhibitions. When<br />
we enter one of Ms. <strong>Nowak</strong>ʼs shows we find ourselves in this space of the psyche. Memories of childhood and<br />
youth, patterns, repetitions, spaces in between materialize as psychological distance in the actual artifacts set up in<br />
the space and are made tangible.<br />
This parcours leads us through the boundaries of the body, inside, and back out again. “The body in my work is<br />
psyche,” says the artist – but the last secrets can be drawn from neither the body nor the psyche. The power of<br />
<strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong>ʼs artwork lies much more in making the mental work of repetition visible and in the physical<br />
persistence of the search.<br />
(Press release for solo exhibition Salzburger Kunstverein, 2011)<br />
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Exhibition view Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna 2011<br />
With subtle structures, <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> creates memorable works that conceptually approach the sensual and the<br />
sensitive. This appears in the meticulous geometry of her new paintings as well as in the sparing repetitive<br />
gestures of her body-related videos and in the reductive alienation of the Real in her objects and installations. The<br />
artist abstracts and minimizes, she orients herself toward the intermediate and empty spaces in order to expose the<br />
uncertain, the inaudible, and the ephemeral. The crossing over between artistic media is thereby associated with a<br />
balancing act between the psychologically ephemeral and the physically tangible.<br />
With the help of her own body, which she utilises fragmented in her videos, <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> refers with sensitive<br />
gestures of repetition to the relational network of contrary mental and corporal conditions and experiences, such as<br />
endearment and pain, proximity and distance, internalization and externalization. Memories of monotonous,<br />
everyday childhood experiences resonate and allude to the correlations between personal experiences and<br />
societal parameters. In her new video, the looped image of a tiring and, time and again, precipitously irritable hand<br />
mediates the interplay between dream and reality, between the obliviousness of sleep and alert self-control. As<br />
though the hand was following a choreography, in which sinking into internal seclusion and the contrary attempt to<br />
find support in external reality incessantly slide into each other. The oscillation of human sensitivity and emotionality<br />
between conscious and unconscious, between emphaticness and loss of control, finds here a memorable symbol,<br />
which in its allusion to the change from day and night also addresses the passing of time.<br />
<strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> also seeks out the ambiguity of emotion in everyday historical and socio-cultural references when<br />
she transforms the entry room of the gallery into an ostensibly domestic, intimate atmosphere through a carpet and<br />
circulating wall moulding. Yet, the carpet is merely a fragment, its form characterizes the space between two sofas,<br />
so that its presence recalls the absence of furniture and liveability. And upon further reflection, the circulating wood<br />
moulding emerges as a requisite that should protect the wall from human traces and thereby possesses a bodily<br />
resistant role. So, this space suggests a homeliness that at once appears broken and is able to induce critical<br />
reflections on internalized perceptions about room and body.<br />
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In some works, the visualization of emotion and time go hand in hand. This also becomes meaningful in regard to<br />
those new paintings that consist of precisely painted, colourful, geometric structures and recall the repetitive,<br />
ornamental patterns of carpets. It is by no coincidence that these paintings occur on a graphically prepared area<br />
and, significantly, the artist appropriates the gestures of repetition as her painterly concept, that, nevertheless, flows<br />
into a dynamically pulsating and spatially irritating colour web. Field for field, painted little by little, each image<br />
appears like a puzzle of time with agglomerations and blank spaces. As the primary means of emotional<br />
expression, the colour is here subject to a systematic abstraction, but that still allows for the coincidental and the<br />
unpredictable space. In this way <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> deliberately keeps the play with the psyche and the unconscious<br />
open.<br />
Rainer Fuchs<br />
(Press release for solo exhibition at Galerie Mezzanin, Wien, 2011)
Installation view at <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, Berlin, 2009<br />
The work of <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong> is created from memory and imagination, residing somewhere in the tension between<br />
autobiographical reference points and poetically immersed dream worlds. <strong>Marzena</strong> <strong>Nowak</strong>’s sensitivity to everyday<br />
occurrences and the relation to her own physicality often represent the thematic departure points for her artistic<br />
practice.<br />
At the <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, <strong>Nowak</strong> will show Untitled (Stars), two large format, star-like blueprint drawings on<br />
canvas, along with the video work Untitled (Trilogy) with three scenes intimate and mysterious details of a moving<br />
body, down from draping hair, caressing fingers and a slightly opened lips. Finally, Novak will present Untitled<br />
(Grating), an architectural intervention in the form of a window grating conceived especially for the gallery space.<br />
Amongst these four works created specifically for the exhibition, there will also be smaller works on view.<br />
(Press release for the solo exhibition at <strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, March - Aprl 2009)<br />
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Installation views, Palazzo Zenobio, Venice, 2003 (with Miroslaw Balka) and Centre of Contemporary Art,<br />
Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, 2002<br />
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MARZENA NOWAK<br />
Born 1977 in Piaseczno / Warsaw, Poland<br />
1997-2002 Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw<br />
Lives and works in Warsaw<br />
Solo exhibitions<br />
2012<br />
<strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, Berlin, Germany<br />
2011<br />
CoCA Center of Contemporary Art Torun, Poland<br />
Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna, Austria<br />
Salzburger Kunstverein, Künstlerhaus, Salzburg, Austria<br />
2010<br />
Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich, Germany<br />
<strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, Ljubljana, Slovenia<br />
2009<br />
<strong>Galerija</strong> <strong>Gregor</strong> <strong>Podnar</strong>, Berlin, Germany<br />
2008<br />
Mezzanin Gallery, Vienna, Austria<br />
Karin Sachs Gallery, Munich, Germany<br />
Passage Galerie, Künstlerhaus, Wien, Austria<br />
2007<br />
Raum für Reflexion, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau/Gartensaal, Dessau, Germany<br />
Piekary Gallery, Poznan, Poland<br />
2006<br />
Milonga Nacht, Neue Kunst im Hagenbucher, Heilbronn, Germany<br />
2005<br />
Public Space, Dessau, Germany<br />
Wizytujaca Gallery, Warsaw, Poland<br />
ZOO-exhibition space, Warsaw, Poland<br />
2004<br />
Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland<br />
Statement, Art 35 Basel, Switzerland<br />
Starmach Gallery, Cracow, Poland<br />
2003<br />
Kultur Kontakt, Pavillon Piroschka rev, quartier21, MQ, Vienna, Austria<br />
Gallery Kronika, Bytom. Poland<br />
Gallery Zakret, Warsaw, Poland<br />
Foksal Gallery, Warsaw, Poland<br />
2001<br />
ASP, Warsaw, Poland<br />
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Group exhibitions<br />
2011<br />
Art Stations Foundation, Poznan, Poland<br />
MUMOK, Vienna, Austria<br />
2010<br />
ISCP, New York, Usa<br />
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany<br />
Mart, Rovereto, Italy<br />
2009<br />
National Museum, Krakau, Poland<br />
Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany<br />
CSW Centre of Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland<br />
Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany<br />
2008<br />
Wola Art Festival, Warsaw, Poland<br />
Rondo Sztuki, Katowice, Poland<br />
Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich, Germany<br />
2007<br />
Andreas Huber Gallery, Vienna, Austria<br />
Dvir Gallery (with Miroslaw Balka and Rafał Jakubowicz), Tel-Aviv, Israel<br />
Gallery Manhattan, Lodz, Poland<br />
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart<br />
Gallery Mezzanin, Vienna, Austria<br />
2006<br />
Narodowa Galeria Sztuki Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland<br />
Terytoria, Lubelskie Towarzystwo Sztuk Pieknych Zacheta, Lublin, Poland<br />
Narodowa Galeria Sztuki Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland<br />
2005<br />
Vienna International Apartment, Turku, Finland<br />
Collection Fundacja Malopolska, MCK, Cracow, Poland<br />
Lokal 30, Warsaw, Poland,<br />
Press to Exit, Skopje, Macedonia<br />
Centre of Contemporary Art, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland<br />
2004<br />
Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow, Poland<br />
Compilation 2112m2 Europe with H. Czerepok, Hainburg/Donau, Austria<br />
Quartier 21, Museums Quartier, Vienna, Austria<br />
2003<br />
Venice 50th Biennale, Venice, Italy<br />
V Krajowa Wystawa Mlodych, BWA, Wroclaw, Poland<br />
2002<br />
Dyploms 2002, CSW, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw, Poland<br />
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Scholarships and residences<br />
2010 Kunstverein Loitz, Germany<br />
2009 Air Krems, Austria<br />
2007 T-Mobile Studios, Vienna, Austria<br />
2006 Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany<br />
2004 KulturKontakt Artists in residence, Vienna, Austria<br />
2003 Henkel Young Artists Prize, Vienna, Austria<br />
2003 Konkurs im. E. Gepperta, First Price, BWA Wroclaw, Poland<br />
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