Bio

Please scroll down for CV and bibliography
Artist’s bio on AWARE website

Joanna Rajkowska, born in 1968, Bydgoszcz, Poland, is an artist based in Warsaw.

Rajkowska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków, Poland, graduating with a Master’s Degree in mural painting in 1993, having already obtained an MA in History of Art from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków a year earlier. She extended her education at the State University of New York, participating in the Studio Semester Programme in 1994 and 1995.

A versatile artist, Rajkowska is best known for her work in public space, where she uses real-life situations, energies, organisms and materials to construct sites, installations and ephemeral actions. She utilises elements as diverse as plants, buildings, found objects, water, smoke or sound. De-familiarizing, de-humanizing and relating are her operating devices. She is interested in the limitations and the limiting of human activities, multiplicity of agencies and human and non-human relations.

The outcomes of her works range from urban axes and architectural projects, through geological fantasies, excavation sites to underwater sculptures. Both alongside and separately, she produces films, photographs and models.

Most of her works happen, live and age in public space. Thus, her practice embraces all the entities involved as well as their relations, including organic and inorganic beings. The artist understands her projects like organisms, as she focuses on matter in its molecular or cellular dimension, its life cycle, growth and ageing. With a strong conviction that we, as humans, have failed to produce a viable, sustainable culture, she often confronts historical and sociopolitical contexts with the lives of species other than human. Tinted with disappointment, her work visualizes and questions the notion of the nature-culture divide.

As a woman and a mother, she uses her own body, a biological machine and a tool that enables her to sense and understand the conditions set for her work. Disease, weakness and malfunction of the living body is very often in the backdrop of her work, providing a fertile ground of potentiality rather than failure. The introduction of the weak, the feminine and the limited into the public space, crossing the boundaries between the private and the public has been the most controversial edge of her practice.

Her work has been presented in the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Sweden, USA, Bulgaria, Palestine, India, Japan, Turkey and Kenya among others.
Her public projects include commissions by Frieze Sculpture 2019 (2019, The Hatchling, UK), United Nations Environment Programme (2019, Death of the Palm Tree, Poland), European Capital of Culture Wrocław (2016, Trafostation, Poland), Institute for Contemporary Ideas and Art (2014, Carpet, Sweden), Royal Society of Arts, Citizen Power Peterborough programme’s Arts and Social Change, Arts Council England (2012, The Peterborough Child, UK), Frieze Projects 2012 (2012, Forcing a Miracle, UK), 7th Berlin Biennale (2012, Born in Berlin, Germany), The Showroom (2010, Chariot, UK), British Council (2010, Benjamin in Konya, Turkey), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2009, Ravine, Poland), CSW Zamek Ujazdowski (2007, Oxygenator, Poland), Trafo Gallery (2008, Airways, Hungary).

As well as commissions, she has realized a number of partisan public projects, most notably Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue in Warsaw (2002) which shaped the unique set of methods Rajkowska employs. The project was to become a major city landmark and has acted as a base for numerous political actions ranging from nurses’ protests to expression of solidarity with Ukraine during its invasion.

Her artwork has been presented in the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Sweden, USA, Bulgaria, Palestine, India, Japan, Turkey and Kenya among others.

The artist received the award by the “Polityka” weekly – Polityka’s Passport – in 2007 , the Maria Anto and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven award for outstanding achievements and artistic attitude in 2022 and the Grand Prize of the Polish Culture Foundation for lifetime achievement.

CV

Joanna Rajkowska

Born in 1968 in Bydgoszcz, Poland
Lives and works in Warsaw, Poland.

Represented by lokal_30 – Agnieszka Rayzacher [lokal30@gmail.com]
Cooperation: l’étrangère London – Joanna Gemes [joanna@letrangere.net]

EDUCATION

MFA in Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków, 1988 – 1993
MA in Art History, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 1987 – 1992
Studio Semester Program, State University of N.Y., New York, 1994 – 1995

PUBLIC PROJECTS

2024 451ºF, Archiv der Avantgarden – Egidio Marzona, Blockhaus, Dresden, Germany
……… The Hatchling, Lesser grey shrike, The Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland
2023 The Hatchling. Songthrush, Five Cornes Square, Warsaw, Poland
……… SORRY, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
2022 The Hatchling. Blackbird, Le serpent cosmique, Utopia, 6th thematic edition of lille3000, Lille, France
……… SORRY, Przystań Sztuki, Poznań and University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
……… Soon Everything Will Change, in the frame of Narracje #13 Festival, We’ve been here, we are here, we will be here, Gdańsk, Poland
2020 The Hatchling. Blackbird, Cody Dock, The Line, London, UK
2019  The Hatchling. Blackbird, Frieze Sculpture, London, UK
……… Death of the palm tree, Project commissioned by UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre, Warsaw, Poland
……… Dragon, Brno Art Open, Brno, Czech Republic
2018  Solstice, in cooperation with Alicja Wysocka and Mutant Goat, Nowogród, Poland
……… I shall not enter into your heaven, permanent installation at Labirynt Gallery, Lublin
……… Stones and Other Demons, Ramallah (In the frame of Lasting Effect,  Qalandiya International),
          Ramallah, Palestine
2017  I shall not enter into your heaven, in the frame of the project Open City, Crossroads,
          Lublin, Poland
……… Event Horizon, The 7th International Festival of Ephemeral Art in Sokołowsko, Poland
2016  Forcing a Miracle, Museum of History of Polish Jews POLIN, Warsaw, Poland
……… Trafostation, in the frame of visual arts programme of European Capital of Culture
          Wrocław 2016, Wrocław, Poland
……… Greetings from Kielce, in the frame of Nomada project, Kielce, Poland
……… Timepost Helsinki, in the frame of Helsinki Design Week, Helsinki, Finland
……… Avant-garde for Insects, in the frame of Parkowanie, Gdańsk, Poland
2015  Zechstein Sea, The Baltic House Lab 2015, Gdańsk, Poland
……… The Peterborough Child, Wysing Arts Centre, UK
2014  Rosa’s Pasage, in the frame of Łódź of Four Cultures Festival, Łódź, Poland
……… Soundlessness, Open’er Festival, Gdynia, Poland
……… Carpet, Institute for Contemporary Ideas and Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
……… Soon Everything Will Change, PEA, Birmingham, UK
2013  All-Seeing Eye, Open Art Projects, Brasilia, Brazil
……… Kino!, Critical Mass, St Petersburg, Russia
2012  Forcing A Miracle, Frieze Projects 2012, London, UK
……… The Peterborough Child, Made in Peterborough commissioning programme, Arts and Social
          Change, Citizen Power Peterborough (Royal Society of Arts, Peterborough City Council, Arts
          Council England), Peterborough, UK (not installed at site)
……… Thermometers and glasses, Relocations Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz, Poland
……… Bund!, Whose History?, Billboard International and Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków,
          Oświęcim, Poland
……… The Light Of The Lodge, Copenhagen Art Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
……… Sumpfstadt, Polish Institute Berlin, Berlin, Germany (project not realised)
……… Final Fantasies, 7th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany
……… Born in Berlin, 7th Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany
2011  Two Days From Europe, 6th Curitiba Biennial, Curitiba, Brazil (project not realised)
2010  Benjamin in Konya, British Council, Konya, Turkey
……… March Backwards, action around Minaret project, by Hanna Gill-Piątek, Malta Festival, Poznań,
          Poland
……… Chariot, The Showroom Gallery, London, UK
2009 – 2011 Minaret, Poznań, Poland (project not realised)
2009  Rotor, Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
……… Aquarius, Art Boom Festival, Kraków, Poland
……… The Bat, Bern, Switzerland (project not realised)
2008  Jenin Refugee Camp Central Station, Jenin, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories (project not realised)
……… Spitoon, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… The Uhyst Refugee Asylum, Uhyst, Germany
……… Airways, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
……… Camping Jenin, Freedom Theatre, Jenin, West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories
2007  Oxygenator, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… A Walk, Krytyka Polityczna, Warsaw, Poland
……… Centre of the World, The Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland (project not realised)
2006  Umeå Volcano, Verkligheten Gallery, Umeå, Sweden (project not realised)
2004  Only Love, Warsaw, Poland
2003-2005 Artist for Rent [Twenty-Two Tasks], Berlin, Łódź, Sheffield
2002  Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue, Warsaw, Poland
2001 The Diary of Dreams, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024  Night Herons, lokal_30 Gallery, Warsaw
2022  Rhizopolis, BWA, Bydgoszcz, Poland
……… Rhizopolis, City Art Gallery of Kalisz, Kalisz, Poland
2021  Rhizopolis, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… Avant-garde for Insects, 66p Subjective Cultural Institution, Wrocław, Poland
2020 Death of the Palm, Olszewski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… Palm House, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
2019  The Failure of Mankind, l’étrangère, London, UK
2018  Architecture after Sunset, :Skala Gallery, Poznań, Poland
……… Suiciders, TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland
2017  Painkillers, Rampa, Istanbul, Turkey
……… Trafostation, Recepcja, Wrocław, Poland
2016  Emre Hüner / Joanna Rajkowska, Salt ULUS, Ankara, Turkey
2015  Painkillers, l’étrangère, London, UK
2014  The Light of the Lodge, Charim Gallery, Vienna, Austria
……… Gold, Silver, Brass, Żak | Branicka Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2012  Born in Berlin – a Letter to Rosa, Żak | Branicka Gallery, Berlin, Germany
……… Sumpfstadt, Polish Institute Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2011  The Minaret that Wasn’t Built, Malta Festival, Poznań, Poland
……… The Task of the Translator, Żak | Branicka Gallery, Berlin, Germany
……… Dogs From Üsküdar, ZPAF i S-ka Gallery, Kraków, Poland
2009  Periscope, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdańsk, Poland
……… Postcards from Switzerland, ZPAF i S-ka Gallery, Kraków, Poland
……… Basia, OKSiR, Świecie, Poland
……… Between The Palm Tree And The Bat, PROGR, Bern, Switzerland
2008  Camping, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, Poland
……… Revolution of 1905, FD4K, Łódź, Poland
……… The Force of Things, Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań, Poland
……… City Oxygenators – Oases, Malta Festival, Poznań, Poland (in cooperation with
          Krytyka Polityczna)
……… Airways, Trafó Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2007  Oxygenate Yourself, Nizio Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2006  Umeå Volcano, Verkligheten Gallery, Umeå, Sweden
……… Leave It, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
2005  Twenty-Two Tasks, Program Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2003  Formal Promise. Artist For Rent, Müllerdechiara Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2002  My Great-Grandmother Rosa Stern, Photofestival, Skulpturen Hus, Stockholm, Sweden
2001  Stockholm International Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
……… The Diary of Dreams, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2000  Satisfaction Guaranteed, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… Satisfaction Guaranteed, AMS – Outdoor Gallery, 400 billboards all over Poland
1999  On Saturday I Eat Sweets and I Masturbate, Open Gallery, Kraków, Poland
……… Things I Do In the Evenings, Manhattan Gallery, Łódź, Poland
1998  Menu of Desires, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, Poland
……… Starmach Gallery, Kraków, Poland
……… The Love of a Man Named Dog, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… It Was Not Me, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, Poland
1997  Midget House, Biała Gallery, Lublin, Poland
………Lobster Lovers, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, USA
1996  Trio for Skin, Voice and Madman, Bucklein Theatre, Kraków, Poland
……… Indispositions. Principles of Internal Medicine, Prowincjonalna Gallery, Słubice, Poland
……… Water-Tower. Headache, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
1995  No Sign of Dying Soon. The Past – the Physical Presence, State University of NY, NYC, USA
……… Irritation, Zderzak Gallery, Kraków, Poland

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024  EUPHORIA. About the Warsaw club scene after 1989, The Wola Museum of Warsaw, Poland
……… And in the wilderness, Krupa Art Foundation (KAF), Wrocław, Poland
……… Close-up views – relationships – tools – knowledge, BWA Katowice, Poland
……… Gangwon International Triennale 2024: Ecological Art from Beneath, Gangwon, South Korea
……… Making New Worlds Instead of Forgetting About It, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warszawa
……… Apartment, Inne Towarzystwo, Warsaw, Poland
……… We want all life. Feminisms in Polish art, Państwowa Galeria Sztuki w Sopocie, Sopot, Poland
……… Transformations. Modernity in the Third Polish Republic, The National Museum, Kraków, Poland
2023  And in the wilderness, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw, Poland
……… WARSAW UNDER CONSTRUCTION 15: The Cold Days Are Over, The Wola Museum of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
……… When? Where? By Whom? For Whom? Why? How? —Thinking about Caring and Motherhood
           through Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Tokyo, Japan
……… Tender Debauchery, lokal_30 Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… The performative arts festival “Stories. The world is more complicated than our truths about it”, Mazovian Museum in Płock, Poland
2022  Study: Osaka-Kansai International Art Festival, Osaka, Japan
……… CEREMONY, NOWY ZŁOTY, Wrocław, Lublin, Poland
……… Fragile – l’étrangère hosted by Austin Desmond Fine Art, London, UK
……… CLICK. Sexualisation of Food in Art, Arton Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
……… mother earth, BWA Wrocław Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
……… The Light of the Lodge, New Enlightement Festival, UCK „Alternatywy”, Warsaw, Poland
2021  Live acting, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Aleksandra Kubiak, Joanna Rajkowska,
           Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
……… Everyday Forms of Resistance, Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… Human, 7 Questions, Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea
……… Inventory of Forgotten Knowledges, Budapest Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
……… Meet the shadow contact the shadow, Joanna Rajkowska, Kerry Downey, Huong Ngo,
           Screening Project: Dongshi Sangyoung, Seoul, Korea
……… Staying with the Trouble, l’étrangère hosted by Austin Desmond Fine Art, London, UK
2020  18. Palm Tree Birthday, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
……… Sculpture in Search of a Place, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… Penumbral Age. Art in the Time of Planetary Change, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
……… Night Herons, Paranoia TV, steirischer herbst ’20, Austria
……… Unflattening, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea
2019  What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?, with Yelena Popova and Jan Eric Visser,
           l’étrangère, London, UK
……… Her Own Way, Female Artists and the Moving Image in Art in Poland: From 1970s to the Present,
           TOP Museum, Tokyo, Japan
……… NOMUS. Collection under construction, NOMUS, Gdańsk, Poland
……… Illness as a Source of Art, National Museum in Poznań, Poznań, Poland
2018  Painkillers (2014-2017), permanent installation, Muzeum Susch, Susch, Szwajcaria
……… ART NIGHT, London, UK
……… Altered States. Substances in Contemporary Art, Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany
……… WE, THE PEOPLE, Central Slovakian Gallery, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
……… Inter-species Conservation, Photofestival, Łódź, Poland
……… White Lie, CCA Kronika, Bytom, Poland
……… The Lasting Effect, Ramallah Municipality, in the frame of Qalandiya International, Palestine
……… BIENNALE WARSZAWA, Warsaw, Poland
……… FUTURE STATION: HOW TO TALK TO FASCISTS, Biennale 2018 Partner Event, Liverpool, UK
2017  The Illusion of Return, Arts Territory, London, UK
……… Two Men and a Mattress, screening programme in collaboration with the Arts Territory,
           at the Diaspora Pavilion, Venice
……… Cine-Eye. Around Vertov and Constructivism, Arsenal Gallery Bialystok, Poland
……… Stitching and unstitching – Markiewicz / Rajkowska, Mathare Art Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
……… THE FACE. A SEARCH FOR CLUES, The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany
……… The Wall. Art Face To Face With Borders, Trafo Art Gallery, Szczecin, Poland
……… Art and Life. From the Hopeful Affinity between Art and Medicine to the National Socialist
           Crimes, Zentrum  für verfolgte Künste in Solingen, Germany
……… The Beguiling Siren is Thy Crest, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… Her White Plumage, Shone on by Rays of Light, Gleamed like the Sun Itself, Henryk Gallery,
           Kraków, Poland
2016  Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitude, Busan Biennale 2016, South Korea
……… Making Use: Life in Postartistic Times, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… The Hybrid Show, Bunker Gallery, Chernovitsye, Ukraine
……… Medicine in Art, MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cracow, Poland
……… Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Henryk Gallery, Cracow, Poland
……… DE-MO-CRA-CY, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
……… Lucid Dream, Biała Gallery, Lublin, Poland
……… Land. Origin: thereafter, Art Konsult Gallery, New Delhi, India
2015  They will remember us in the future, Academy Gallery, in the frame of Sofia Queer Forum 2015,
           National Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
……… Hommage to Kantor, Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery@KCUA, Kyoto Art Center,
           Kyoto, Japan
……… A Beautiful Darkness, Central St. Martins, London, UK
……… Land. Natural, Gendered, Nandan Gallery, Kala Bhawan, Santiniketan, India
……… I am burning Paris (Je brûle Paris), Cité internationale des Arts, Paris, France
……… Motherhood, Lviv Art Palace, Lviv, Ukraine
……… ARTINTERNATIONAL, Videos on Stage, Istanbul, Turkey
……… War and Peace, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
……… Vot Ken You Mach, Muzeum Współczesne, Wrocław, Poland
……… Private Nationalism, Open Gallery, Bratislava, Slovenská Republika
……… The Wall. Art Face To Face With Borders, Careof DOCVA in Milan, Italy
……… My Poland. On Recalling and Forgetting, Tartu Art Museum, Estonia
……… UMENIE NA HLAVE/PROCEDURES FOR THE HEAD, Poľské súčasné umenie/Polish Art Today,
           Dom umenia/Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia
2014  Critical Juncture, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India
……… As You Can See: Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… Regenerate Art, Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany
……… Your City Is A Battleground, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… In the Heart of the Country. The Collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw,
          Museum of Modern Art,  Warsaw, Poland
……… RUPTURES & CONVERGENCES, Kuad Gallery and Kuadrum space, Istanbul, Turkey
……… How to Disappear Completely, Tiroler Künstlerschaft – Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, Austria
……… Gold, Kunsthalle FORUM Factory, Berlin, Germany
2013 A Tourist In Other People’s Reality, Vestry House Museum, London, UK
……… 3rd International Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokolowsko, Poland
……… In the Heart of the Country, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
……… L’hallali, La Station, Nice, France
2012  7th Berlin Biennale, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
……… Dependency Culture as a State of Mind, InteriorDAsein, Berlin, Germany
……… Between Us, (screening), HMKV, Dortmund, Germany
……… Middle East Europe, Labor Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
……… Middle East Europe, Bethlehem Peace Centre, Bethlehem, Palestinian Occupied Territories
……… Middle East Europe, Dox Museum Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
……… Attendance Obligatory?… or A Few Tough Tales about Participation, Łódź Design
           Festival 2012, Łódź, Poland
2011  Public Folklore, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria
……… The Journey to the East, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland
……… 6th Curitiba Biennial, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil
……… Performing Architecture, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… Scenarios about Europe, GfZK Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
……… For Kids and Adults, BWA Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
……… The Journey to the East, Arsenał, Białystok, Poland
……… Prague Quadriennale 11th International Competitive Exhibition of Scenography and
……… Theatre Architecture, Prague, Czech Republic
……… 5+5, Tvrdava Gallery, Slavonski Brod, Croatia
……… Trembling Bodies / Körper in Aufruhr, daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany
……… Taktiken des Wilderns, Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria
2010  Performing Memory, Astana Municipal Modern Art Museum, Astana, Kazakhstan
……… You Can’t Get There From Here, The Camera Club of New York, New York, USA
……… Hostipitality. Receiving Strangers, Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej w Łodzi, Łódź, Poland
……… Things Evokes Feelings. Selected narrations for the CCA Ujazdowski Castle,
           CCA Ujazdowski Castle, Warszawa, Poland
……… Estrangement, The Showroom, London, UK
……… Mute Signs, Contemporary Approaches to (In)tolerance,
           Magyar Képzőművészeti Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary
……… Early Years, KunstWerke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
……… Exhibition presented by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
……… Let’s Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity, Kumu Museum, Tallin, Estonia
2009 1989, End of History or Beginning of the Future?, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, USA
……… Warsaw Under Construction, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
……… ANNENVIERTEL! The Art of Urban Intervention, Gallery, Graz, Austria
……… Disappear at Vistula River, Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
……… The Department of Contemporary Art: The Polish Alphabet 1, BWA, City Gallery,
           Tarnów, Poland
……… Over and Over Again 1989-2009, The Centennial Hall, Wrocław, Poland
……… The truest love stories. Allegories of Love in the Contemporary Polish Art,
……… Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz
……… Foreigners in their Homeland, Screening of Polish contemporary video art, KUMU.
          Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia
……… Place in Heart, Emil Filla Gallery, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
……… Territories, Lokal-int, Biel, Switzerland
……… Where to go? Notes on Transformation after 1989, < rotor > association for contemporary art,
           Graz, Austria
……… Energy Class: B, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
……… Windows upon Oceans – 8. Baltic Biennial of Contemporary Art,
……… Museum of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland
2008  Chosen, The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Holon, Israel, Wyspa Art Institute, Gdańsk, Poland
……… Points Of Reference, Collection of the Foundation for Contemporary Art of the
           National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum, Warsaw
……… Place in Heart, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland
……… Sensualia, Starmach Gallery, Kraków, Poland
……… Another City, Another Life, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… Monsters, Motorenhalle, Dresden, Germany
……… Bifurkacje, Appendix2, Appendix2 Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… Souvenirs: Repressed Historical and Personal Memory in the works of Israeli and
           Polish Artists, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel
……… Fade into Black, BWA Gallery, Wrocław, Poland
……… Republic of Cultures, doc review, Warsaw, Poland
2007  Open House, IASPIS Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden
……… The 11th Prague Quadrienalle 2007, Prague, Czech Republic
……… The Memory of this Moment from the Distance of Years, the former Schindler’s Factory, Kraków, Poland
2006 Paris Is Burning, Laurin Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
……… Architecture intimate/Architecture abandoned, Kronika Gallery, Bytom, Poland
……… Ulica Próżna 2006, Shalom Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
……… In Poland, That Is Where?, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… Southeast Passages, Palazzo Massari PAC, Ferrara, Italy
2005  Spectator T, Art Sheffield 05, Sheffield Contemporary Art Forum, UK
……… Egocentric, Immoral, Outmoded. Contemporary Images of Artists, Zachęta National Gallery,
           Warsaw, Poland
……… We will make it somehow / Elections A.D. 2005, Piotr Nowicki Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
……… Site-ations 2005, Cardiff, UK
……… Culture Time, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań, Poland
……… Horizon of Collisions, Art Poznań 2005, Poznań, Poland
……… How to Talk about Contemporary Art?, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland
……… Culture Time, Arsenał Gallery, Poznań, Poland
……… Horizon of Collisions, Art Poznań 2005, Poznań, Poland
……… How to Talk about Contemporary Art?, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland
2004 Continental Breakfast, 45th October Salon, Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade, Serbia
……… Lodz Biennale, Lodz, Poland
……… Busan Biennale, Busan, Korea
……… Memoirs of a Time of Immaturity, Passage de Retz, Paris, France
……… White Mazur, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków, Poland
2003  Operation Mice, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków, Poland
………Logo! No Logo?, Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen, Brugge, Belgium
……… White Mazur, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
……… Stockholm International Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
2002  Open House, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
……… Really. The Young Are Realists. Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle,
           Warsaw, Poland
……… Global Priority, Jamaica Arts Center, New York, USA
……… Semiotic Landscape, Charim Gallery, Vienna, Austria
……… Ostensiv-Moscow, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
……… Oder-Sprung, Kunsthalle Essen, Germany
……… Poland, Academia Theater, Warsaw, Poland
2001  In Freiheit endlich, Polnische Kunst nach 1989, Krolikarnia, Warsaw, Poland
……… Słubice-Kraków, Prowincjonalna Gallery, Słubice, Poland
……… The Last Woman, Inner Spaces Gallery, Poznań, Poland
……… Ostensiv, Kunstraum B/2, Leipzig, Germany
……… Irreligia, Muzeum Atelier 340, Brussels, Belgium
……… Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2000  Scena 2000, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
……… In Freiheit endlich, Polnische Kunst nach 1989, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
……… Postindustrial Sorrow, Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Germany
1999  Blue Fire, 3rd Biennial Prague, Young Artists from Central Europe, Prague, Czech Republic
1998  Fragment of Collection 3, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
1997  Re-Bates, The L. C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, USA
1996  Art in Poland, New Directions, UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
……… Sensitive, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland
……… Solvay, Blok A/D, L’Atelier Gallery, Kraków, Poland
1995  Unter Einem Dach, Podewil, Berlin, Germany
1994  Let Me Wash Your Hands, Sauce Place, New York, USA

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS



  • 2024 The Main Prize of the ING Polish Art Foundation
  • 2023 Award of the Capital City of Warsaw (awarded in 2012 and not accepted then)
  • 2022 The Maria Anto and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Award
  • 2012  Award of the City of Warsaw (not accepted)
  • 2010 Grand Prize, Fundacja Kultury, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2009 Pro Helvetia grant and residency, PROGR, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2007 Paszport Polityki for Best Visual Artist, annual award by the Polityka weekly
  • 2007 Visegrad Artist Residency, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2006 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship
IASPIS grant and residency, Umeå, Sweden
  • 2001  The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship
  • 1998 The Civitella Ranieri Fellowship
  • 1997 The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship
  • 1996 The ArtsLink Partnership, Buffalo, USA
  • 1992 President’s Award of the City of Kraków, Kraków

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

2024

  • Art Unlimited, Performans: Rüya Metin: Gazze yürüyüşleri, A.S.Bruckstein/House of Taswir, Istanbul 2024 (in Turkish)
  • We want all life. Feminisms in Polish art, edited by Agnieszka Rayzacher and Karolina Majewska-Güde, Państwowa Galeria Sztuki, Sopot, Poland (exhibition catalogue)
  • Gangwon International Triennale 2024. Ecological Art from Beneath, Gangwon, South Korea (exhibition catalogue)
  • Female Masters, Dagmara Budzbon-Szymańska, Wydawnictwo Arkady, Warszawa
  • What after the apocalypse? Stanisław Małecki in OROŃSKO. Sculpture Quarterly nr 2(135) 2024 Between art and nature, The Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko

2023

  • Katarzyna Bojarska, Traumatic Female Gaze: Julia Pirotte Looking at the Kielce Pogrom, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/6/239, Department of Culture and Media, Faculty of Humanities, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland
  • Art. Update. What can you see in the public space of Warsaw? Edited by Aleksandra Litorowicz and Monika Wróbel, Puszka Foundation, Warsaw
  • I’m collecting new art. Conversations with collectors, Kamila Bondar, Adam Mazur, ING Polish Art Foundation, Warsaw

2022

  • Welcome to Europe: a story in numbers, ASP Kraków, Poland
  • Archive of Destruction, Reader 1, edited by Jes Fernie, London 2022
  • Joanna Rajkowska, Andrew Dixon, Rhizopolis, City Art Gallery of Kalisz (exhibition catalogue)

2021

  • Perverse Decolonization?, Edited by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff, Jan Sowa, Archive Books, Berlin, Germany
  • There Is No Society? Individuals and Community in Pandemic Times. Edited by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff (publication in conjunction with steirischer herbst festival ’20, Graz, Austria
  • Paranoia TV, Edited by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff , Graz, Austria
  • The Avant-Garde Hypotheses///Collected texts and images, Edited by Aneta Szyłak, Nomus, The National Museum in Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
  • NOMUS, Collection in Action, Edited by Aneta Szyłak & Aleksandra Grzonkowska, Translated by Joanna Figiel, Nomus, The National Museum in Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
  • Everyday Forms of Resistance (exhibition catalogue), Ujazdowski castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
  • Poland as a soil for the growth of Contemporary Art. Heritage and transformation, from Kantor to present day, edited by Akiko Kasuya, Academia Library, Kyoto, Japan

2020

2019

2018

  • Justyna Wierzchowska, “Publicizing Vulnerability: Motherhood and Affect in Joanna Rajkowska’s Post-2011 Art.” In: Gill Rye, Victoria Browne, Adalgisa Giorgio, Emily Jeremiah, Abigail Lee Six (eds.). Motherhood in Literature and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Europe. Routledge 2018. 153-168.
  • dérive, Zeitchrift für Stadtforschung, Juli – Sept 2018, Nº 72, WARSAW Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization, cover and insert, pages 33-36 Vienna, 2018
  • Site-specific Works, Muzeum Susch (exhibition guide)
  • altered states, Substances in Contempoary Art, Kunstpalais, Stadt Erlangen, Hatje Cantz, 2018 (exhibition catalogue)
  • Sculpture today. Art in the public space, Orońsko 2018
  • Mocak FORUM, no1/2018 [14],  MOCAK Publishing, pp. 19-31

2017

  • Escape from the Liberty Cinema, Fundacja Lokal Sztuki / Lokal_30, Warszawa, 2017
  • Prototyping Spaces and Relations. Artloop Festival. Publication summarizing six editions of ARTLOOP Festival (2011-2016), State Art Gallery in Sopot, Sopot, 2017
  • white lie, CSW Kronika, Bytom, 2017 (exhibition catalogue)
  • The Public Face of Art, Warsaw Insider, Warsaw, May 2017

2016

  • Engaged Urbanism. Cities & Methodologies, Edited by Ben Campkin & Ger Duijzings, I.B.Tauris, London, 2016
  • Wrocław – Backyard Door. An Overview, Biuro Festiwalowe IMPART 2016, Wrocław, 2016
  • Busan Biennale 2016 – Project 2, Hybridizing Earth Discussing Multitude, Busan Biennale Organising Comittee, Korea, 2016
  • The Female Body in the Looking-Glass: Contemporary Art, Aesthetics and Genderland, Basia Sliwinska, Basia, I.B.Tauris, London, 2016
  • Transnational Embodied Belonging Within ‘Edge Habitats’, Basia Sliwinska, Third Text, Volume 29, 2015 – Issue 4-5, Trans-figurations: Transnational Perspectives on Domestic Spaces, Pages 287-309
  • Radical Space: Exploring Politics and Practice, Edited by Debra Benita Shaw and Maggie Humm, Rowman & Littlefield International, London, 2016
  • Medcine in Art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow, Cracow, 2016
  • Art for everyone? On Public Art in the City Spoace, Monika Rydiger, HERITO, The City as a Work of Art, Nr 22-23, str. 112-129
  • Labor Relations. From the International Contemporary Art Collection of Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, 2016, the publication accompanying the exhibition
  • The Wall. Art Face to Face With Borders, Imago Mundi Foundation in cooperation with CSW Kronika and Careof DOCVA in Milan, 2016, the publication accompanying the exhibition The Wall at Careof DOCVA in Milan
  • Parkowanie 2007-2016. History of Various Collisions, Stowarzyszenie A KuKu Sztuka, Gdańsk 2016

2015

2014

  • Progress and Hygiene, Zachęta National Gallery, Warszawa, 2014
  • From Those You Saved, Fundacja Pamięć i Przyszłość, Warszawa, 2014
  • RUPTURES&CONVERGENCES, Wrocław/Istanbul, 2014
  • Book Review: Joanna Rajkowska, Where the Beast Is Buried, Journal of Visual Culture 2014 13: 241-243
  • Regenerate Art, Kunstverein München, Monachium 2014
  • David Crowley, review of “Where the Beast is Buried”, Frieze, NO 163 May 2014

2013

  • Where The Beast Is Buried,  Zero Books, 2013
  • A Tourist in Other People’s Reality, Mnemoscape Publishing, London 2013
  • Critical Mass, Exhibition catalogue, St. Petersburg 2013

2012

  • Joanna Rajkowska catalogue, Żak | Branicka, 2012

2011

  • Zeitgenössische Künstler aus Polen, Steidl/Positionen 4
  • Psy z Üskudar , Fundacja Sztuk Wizualnych, Galeria ZPAF i Ska, Kraków 2011
  • POLISH! Contemporary Art From Poland, ZAK | BRANICKA Foundation, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, 2011
  • Nowa Krytyka, Czasopismo filozoficzne, 26/27, Postcolonialism, Szczecin, 2011
  • Monument kodaniku algatuse korras, Rael Artel, Maja, Estonian Architectural Review, 2-2011 (68), Talin, Estonia
  • 1989 THE END OF HISTORY OR THE BEGINNING OF THE FUTURE? 1989 DAS ENDE DER GESCHICHTE ODER DER ANFANG DER ZUKUNFT? Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, 2011
  • The ARTificial Space of Art, Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, Poznań 2011
  • Hostipitality. Receiving Strangers, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź, 2011
  • Joanna Rajkowska, Walter Benjamin in Konya, Żak | Branicka 2011
  • Liberated Energy, red. Joanna Baranowska, Paweł Sztarbowski, Instytut Teatralny im. Zbigniewa Raszewskiego
  • My City. Canakkale Istanbul Konya Mardin Trabzon Berlin Dortmund Helsinki London Vienna Warsaw, Ed. Özge Acikkol & Secil Yersel, Istanbul 2011

2010

  • Joanna Rajkowska, Under the Palm tree, Public Preparation 2, Contemporary Nationalism and Critical Art Practices is a selective documentation of the Public Preparation Practices in 2008-2010
  • Excerpts From Artist’s Talk, Joanna Rajkowska’s Airways, Let’s Talk About Nationalism! Between Ideology and Identity, 2010
  • Airi Triisberg, Let’s Refuse to Be What We Are (Supposed to Be)!, Estonian Art, 2010
  • Early Years. Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw is searching for its founding myth, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2010
  • Let’s Talk About Nationalism. Between Ideology and Identity, Kumu Art Museum, 2010

2009

  • Building my own ‘minaret’, Joanna Rajkowska, The Guardian, 19.12.2009
  • C.H.O.S.E.N., curators: Galit Eilat & Aneta Szyłak, Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdańsk 2009
  • Disappearing. A User’s Manual, ed. Katarzyna Chmielewska, Mateusz Kwaterko, Kuba Szreder, Bogna Świątkowska, Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, Warszawa 2009
  • Windows Upon Oceans, Dystopian Realms / Idyllic Meadows – 8th Baltic Contemporary Art Biennial, The National Museum in Szczecin, Szczecin 2009

2008

  • Contemporary Art From Poland. The Reader, Obieg, 79-80/2008
  • Points of Reference. Collection of the Foundaion for Contemporary Art of the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Warsaw 2008
  • Mediations Biennale Poznań 2008, Centrum Kultury “Zamek” w Poznaniu, Stowarzyszenie Kontekst Sztuki, Pozań 2008

2007

  • A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON, Oxygenating critical practices in Poland, Magdalena Pustoła, MA Dissertation, Department of Visual Cultures Goldsmiths College, London 2007
  • Warsaw. Tomasz Fudala. Artforum, 12/2007

2006

  • XII BIENNALE DONNA, PASSAGGI A SUD EST, Ferrara Palazzo Massari PAC 19 marzo-14 maggio 2006
  • At the Very Centre of Attention, part 9, 18.07-27.08.2006, Center for Contemporary Art Zamek Ujazdowski 2006
  • IMHIBITION, edited by Roman Dziadkiewicz and Ewa Małgorzata Tatar, National Museum in Kraków 2006
  • Love and democracy, text, idea: Pawel Leszkowicz, “Laznia” Center for Contemporary Art 2006
  • Towards the Other. Observations and Interventions, edited by Stanisław Ruksza, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej BWA Katowice 2006

2005

  • Sense in Place. Site-ations International. Europe 2005/6, Site-ations International 2005
  • Art Fair Poznań 2005, Fundacja Akademii Sztuk Pięknych w Poznaniu 2005

2004

  • BUSAN BIENNALE 2004. (The BusanBiennale Organizing Committee)
  • CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST BELGRADE, 45th October Art Salon, 10.09.-31.10.04 Belgrade Cultural Centre

2003

  • Biały mazur, edited by Anda Rottenberg, Fundacja Instytut Promocji Sztuki, Warszawa 2003
  • Topos polonicus, Anda Rottenberg, Fundacja Instytut Promocji Sztuki, Warszawa 2003

2002

  • OPEN HOUSE, intro: Enrico Lunghi, Casino Luxemburg 2002

2001

  • New phenomena in polish art after 2000, edited by: Grzegorz Borkowski, Adam Mazur i Monika Branicka
  • The last woman. IX Festiwal Innes Spaces. Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Inner Spaces Poznań 2001
  • A Warsaw Interlude: Three Exibitions, R.V., Art in America, 03.2001

1999

  • 3rd Biennal Prague, Young Artists from Central Europe, City gallery Prague 1999
  • What Ails Joanna Rajkowska? Roman Maciuszkiewicz, EXIT The new art in Poland.No. 2 (38) 1999

1998

  • MENU OF DESIRES. Tje BUNKIER SZTUKI Contemporary Art Gallery 1998
  • At The Time Of Writing, The Centre for Contemporary Art – Ujazdowski Castle, Warszaw 22.06-13.09.98
  • A Regressive Dream. Stach Szabłowski, EXIT New art in Poland, No.2 (34) 1998

1997

  • Afflictions. Science of Internal Illnesses, Leszek Kania, EXIT. New art in Poland, No.1 (29) 1997

1996

  • Art in Poland: New Directions, Carol Zemel and Maria Hussakowska-Szyszko, Univarsity at Buffalo Art Gallery/ Research Center in Art + Culture, 11.04-31.05.1996
  • SENSITIVE. Galeria Arsenał Białystok 1996

1995

  • SITES, NONSITES. Young Polish Sculpture. Center of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko. Museum of Contemporary Sculpture. OROŃSKO 1995
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