Piotr Skiba
Piotr Skiba in his work clearly underlines the physical presence of things and people, putting everything on the same level. In his works stands out a value connected to the square of the “Kosmonautów” residential complex in Wrocław, commonly reffered to as the “COSMOS”, where he lived and worked for years. His attention is focused on the potential of “lowest rank” disposables. Skiba uses mass-produced objects, parts and materials related to basic, universal human needs. Things such as steel filters, abandoned clothes, broken light bulbs, lighters are often combined in bronze and aluminum castings with organic forms, e.g. with insects, cuticles etc. The artist lives with them in his apartment, changing, dismantling or assembling into prototype elements, creating sculptural hybrids of neighborhood monuments. Piotr Skiba’s objects seem to evoke a world where things have taken control, where the human body has only left traces. Similar to Nick Flynn’s poem „Statuary” – he works like a bee struggling with the body of a snail or mouse poisoned in a hive. Acting methodically, he struggles with “the object – the body”, to finally expel it or dismantle it in order to, as Flynn described it poetically, “hermetically close it in a propolis and wax tomb above the city’s ordinary monuments.” Skiba’s archaeological excavations describe a man who tries to oppose nature and fails, leaving a feeling of emptiness and melancholy.
Piotr Skiba b. 1980 in Wrocław (PL), lives and works in Wroclaw (PL)
Education
Academy of Fine Arts, Paintings and Sculpture Department (MA), Wrocław, PL
PhD in fine arts
Academic experience
Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Szczecin, PL
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
2024
Soft Parts Protection, Piktogram, Warsaw, PL (with Agata Ingarden)
Snail Gods, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, PL
2022
Gazing the ceiling whether the star’s blade has already drilled in, National Museum in Wrocław, Four Domes Pavilion, Wrocław, PL
Ruts in the Palates, Piktogram, Warsaw, PL
2020
Murmur Over the Body Lobe, Spazio ORR, Brescia, IT
2019
Seeking IIlness as an Act of Violence Committed on Onself, OS 17, Szczecin, PL
2018
In Boxes, We Think Someone Sits Behind Our Eyes, Berthold Pott Gallery, Cologne, DE
Alley Project, Giorgio Galotti Gallery, Turin, IT
2017
Solo show, Giorgio Galotti, Turin, IT
Double solo, DASH Gallery, Kortrijk, BE (with Samuel Francois)
2016
Never Is a Very Long Time, Workbench International, Milan, IT
Its Our Plesure to Serve You, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
Die-Cast, Zone of Contemporary Art, Szczecin, PL
Films and Objects, MOSART Gorzów Wielkopolski, PL
2014
HONKY, White Box Art Center, New York City, US
Man, That Negro Stole My Show!, The Old Truman Brewery, London, UK
2013
Vulgar Display of Power, Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, PL
Teabagging, LETO Gallery, Warsaw, PL
Observing Self, Entropia Gallery, Wrocław, PL (with Piotr Łakomy)
2012
Sausage Hero, BWA Awangarda, Wrocław, PL