Paulina Olowska

Paulina Olowska, born in 1976 in Gdansk (PL), studies the processes of urban transformation and social relationships in an era of growing consumerism, and is interested in the function of painting as a fictional space. Paulina Olowska’s paintings, performances, videos and installations continuously explore forgotten figures of feminism, utopian promises articulated in Modernism, shifts in cultural perspective between East and West, minor histories and popular aesthetics. Olowska has undertaken frequent collaborations with artists including Bonnie Camplin in Salty Water/What of Salty Water at Portikus, Frankfurt (DE) in 2007, and Lucy McKenzie, with whom she created the bar Nova Popularna in Warsaw in 2003. Olowska has exhibited internationally at Manifesta 11, Zurich 2016, Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, PA (US) 2013, Steirischer Herbst, Graz (AT), 2010, and in biennials including Berlin Biennale, 2008, Moscow Biennale and Istanbul Biennial, both 2005, and La Biennale di Venezia (IT), 2003.
 

Solo exhibitions
2017 Slavic Goddesses, The Kitchen, New York, NY (US). 2016 Wisteria, Mysteria, Hysteria, Metro Pictures, New York. The Spell of Warsaw, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw. 2013 Au Bonheur des Dames, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL). Pavilionesque, Kunsthalle Basel (CH). 2012 Mother 200, Simon Lee Gallery, London. 2011 The Revenge of the Wise-Woman, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw. 2010 The Magnificent Seven, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA (US). 2008 Usher We (Down There) with Bonnie Camplin, Tate Modern, London (performance). 2005 Alphabet, Galerie Meerrettich, Berlin (performance). 2004 Sie musste die Idee eines Hauses als Metapher verwerfen, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Brunswick (DE). 2003 Galerii Foksal, Warsaw. 2002 Romancing with Avant-garde, National Gallery, Sopot (PL). 2001 Heavy Duty with Lucy McKenzie, Inverleith House, Edinburgh (GB).
 

Publications
Paulina Olowska: Pavilionesque at the Kunsthalle Basel, exh. cat. Kunsthalle Basel, JRP Ringier, Zurich 2013.

Claire Bishop, “Paulina Olowska: Reactivating Modernism”, Marta Dziewanska, “Storytelling: Paulina Olowska and History in Motion”, Catherine Wood, “Design for Living”, in: Parkett, 92, 2013.

Nikola Dietrich (ed.), Salty Water/What of Salty Water, exh. cat. Portikus, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Frankfurt 2007.