Artur Żmijewski

Artur Żmijewski (born 1966 in Warsaw) is a multimedia artist, creator of films, objects, installations and photographs, as well as a curator and author of publications on contemporary art; he is regarded as one of the leading figures of the critical art movement in Poland. Between 1990 and 1995, he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where in 1995 he completed his degree in the studio of Professor Grzegorz Kowalski, the famed ‘Kowalnia’ – a studio of significant importance for the development of critical art. After completing his studies, he moved away from sculpture towards new media, which, according to the artist, better reflect the complexity of the contemporary world. Żmijewski’s works address themes such as disability, suffering and trauma, some of which take the form of group experiments with unpredictable outcomes. In 2000, he won the main prize at the prestigious Guarene Arte exhibition in Italy for his film ‘An Eye for an Eye’. In 2005, he represented Poland at the 51st Venice Biennale, where he exhibited his work ‘Repetition’. In February 2010, he received the American Ordway Award, presented by the New Museum in New York; in 2012, he curated the 7th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art; and in 2013, he was awarded the Jerzy Stajuda Art Critics’ Prize. He is currently associated with the Foksal Gallery Foundation in Warsaw.