Paulina Ołowska  / Poland

Poland born 1976

Paulina Ołowska’s work is influenced by the history of avant-garde art, traditional crafts and experimental theatre traditions of Poland and other former Soviet countries. Using performance, sculpture, painting, neon and fashion, she revisits history, often shedding light on underappreciated female artists.

Ołowska’s works combine portraits of women from gardening magazines with elements from Slavic mythology and folklore, as well as techniques from Les Nabis – artists who left Paris to live in the countryside in the 1890s. The paintings incorporate esoteric references to rural living and represent Ołowska’s ‘active muses’ – characters with specialised knowledge, including fungi and butterfly experts, gardeners and artists.

BIO

Ołowska has held solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw. In the last six years she has also presented performances at Tate Modern, London, the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ołowska has participated in numerous biennales, including the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003, Berlin and Istanbul in 2008, and has participated in group exhibitions at institutions around the world. In January 2017 Ołowska presented Slavic Goddesses, a newly conceived ballet, at The Kitchen, New York.