Joanna Piotrowska (b. 1985) is a Polish artist based in London. She examines the human condition through performative acts and the construction of multiple ‘social landscapes’ using photography, performance and film. Family archives, self-defence manuals and psychotherapeutic methods are used as reference points as Piotrowska explores the complex roles which play out in everyday performance. Her psychologically charged photographs probe human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere.

Her work has been exhibited at: Le Bal, Paris (2023), 59th Venice Biennale (2022), The 16th Lyon Biennale (2022) Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2022), MACRO, Rome, Italy (2020), Tate Britain (2019), Kunsthalle Basel (2019), MoMA, New York (2018), Kunsthalle Wien (2018), 10th Berlin Biennale (2018), Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan (2016), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2013).

Piotrowska’s work is held in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Tate, London, United Kingdom.


CV

Education

2011 – 2013

• MA Photography, Royal College of Art, London, UK
  

2004 – 2009

• BA Photography, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland

Grants, Awards and Residencies

2023

• Ellen Auerbach Scholarship for Photography, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
  

2021

• Artist in Residence, ARCH, Athens, Greece
  

2018

• Lewis Baltz Research Fund Award
  

2017

• Inclusartiz Institute Residency, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2016

• Reda Prize, Artissima, Turin, Italy
  
• Nomination for Paul Hamlyn Foundation Prize
  

2015

• Plat(t)form, Winterthur Fotomuseum, Switzerland

• Photoworks & Jerwood Award
  

2014

• First Book Award, MACK Books, London, UK
  

2011

• Genesis Foundation Scholarship
  

2010

• Hidden Places artist in residence, Görlitz, Germany
  

Publications 

2023

• Entre nous. Joanna Piotrowska, MACK co-published with LE BAL, London, UK
  

2021

• Joanna Piotrowska. Stable Vices, MACK, London, UK
  

2017

• Joanna Piotrowska. Frantic, Humboldt Books, Milan, Italy
  

2014

• Joanna Piotrowska. Frowst, MACK, London, UK (Winner of the 2014 MACK First Book Award)

Solo exhibitions

2023 

• Entre nous, LE BAL, Paris, France
  

2022

• Sub Rosa, Joanna Piotrowska & FormaFantasma, ARCH Athens, Greece
• Sub Rosa, Joanna Piotrowska & Formafantasma, Phillida Reid, London, UK
• Sleeping Throat, Bitter Thirst,  Project Space Shifting Present Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

2021

• Thump, Stiftung Insel Hombroich, Neuss, Germany
• Are we home yet?, Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2020

• Frowst, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
• Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

2019

• All our false devices, Tate Britain, London, UK
• Joanna Piotrowska Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
• Stable Vices, Kunsthalle Basel,  Switzerland

2018

• CONDO Mexico City, Madragoa and Dawid Radziszewski hosted by Arredondo/Arozarena, Mexico
• Frieze London, Southard Reid booth, London, UK

2017

• Untitled, Southard Reid, London, UK
• Art Basel Statements, Dawid Radziszewski booth, Basel, Switzerland
• SP-Arte, Madragoa Gallery booth, São Paulo, Brasil

2016

• Dawid Radziszewski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
• Paris Internationale, Dawid Radziszewski Gallery booth, Paris, France
• LISTE Art Fair Basel, Dawid Radziszewski booth, Basel, Switzerland
• Frantic, Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

2015

• Hester, Southard Reid, London, UK
• How Are You?, Księgarnia | Wystawa, Kraków, Poland
• Frowst, Ethnographic Museum, Photomonth, Kraków, Poland

2014

• s.w.a.l.k., Project Space, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK

Selected group exhibitions

2023

• L’ Irrésolue FRAC Île-de-France, Le Plateau, Paris, France
  

2022

• The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, Italy
• manifesto of fragility, 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, France

• British Art Show 9, The Box, Plymouth, UK
• Il était un fois... FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
• European Trails. Europäische Fotokünstlerinnen der Gegenwart, H2 – Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst, Augsburg, Germany
  

2021

• Who Will Write the History of Tears. Artists on Women’s Rights, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
• La Boîte-en-Valise, Office Baroque, online
• 60 years, Tate Britain, London, UK
• British Art Show 9, Aberdeen Art Gallery, UK
• Architecture of Confinemet, BNKR, Munich, Germany
• Day/Night Southard Reid, Old Folks Association, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

2020

• BOOKS. An exhibition of books about art and art about books, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
  
• Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
  

• Our Red Sky, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden
• Panic TV, steirischer herbst, Graz, Austria
• Museum for Preventive Imagination – EDITORIAL MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome Rome, Italy

2019

• occupy and echo (a stage), ReadingRoom, Melbourne, Austria
• Yorkshire Sculpture International, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
• Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, Munich, Germany
• Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art Coimbra, Portugal
• Jen Liu, Joanna Piotrowska, Jesse Wine, Simone Subal, New York, USA

2018

• Antarctica. An exhibition on alienation, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
• Galeria Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, Poland
• Being: New Photography 2018, MoMA, New York, USA
• We don’t need another hero, 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
• CONDO London, Southard Reid, London, UK
• La Bottega Oscura, GRGLT, Turin, Italy
• Material Environments, Te Tetley, Leeds, UK
• SUPERSTITION, Museum Marres, Maastricht, Netherlands
• Structures of meaning / Architecture of perception, Gateway, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• SCULPTURES, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, USA

2017

• Room, Sadie Coles, UK
• Room, Mead Gallery, Warwick Art Center, UK
• These Rotten Words, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, UK
• Big towers, ICA, Singapore
• O Céu dos Oblíquos. Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
• GAUDIOPOLIS, Off-Biennale, Budapest, Hungary
• Frieze London, Southard Reid booth, London, UK
• SEVER, Galeria Boavista, Lisbon, Portugal
• Something halfway between the typical atmosphere I breathe and the tip of my reeality, Tabacalera, Madrid, Spain

2016

• Such Are Promises, Darren Bader, Sadie Coles, London, UK
• Give Me Yesterday, Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy
• Salon of New Photography 2016, Raster Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

2015

• Royal College of Art Stand Photo London, Somerset House, London, UK
  

• Lea Cetera, Daniel Lipp & Joanna Piotrowska, Sunday At Fair, London, UK
• Jerwood and Photoworks Awards 2015, Jerwood Space, London, UK
• True Players, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Art Lending Library project by Walker & Bromwich, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK
• Kombucha, Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków, Poland
• Altrimenti che essere, Galleria Oltredimore, Gender Bender Festival, Bologna, Italy
• Krasna-Krausz Book Awards and First Book Award 2015, Media Space, Science Museum, London, UK

2014

• What love has to do with it, Project Space, Hayward Gallery, London, UK

2013

• When Sleeper Wakes, Aperto Gallery, St Petersburg, Russia
• Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
• Family Politics, Jerwood Space, London, UK
• Fly me through the night, Pilot, Private house at Primrose Hill, London, UK
• Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Spike Island, Bristol, UK
• Call XV, Luis Adelantado Gallery, Valencia, Spain
• 21st Century Art and Design, RCA 2013, Christie’s, London, UK
• MA Graduation Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK

2012

• The Suspension of History, Basement Project Space, Cork, Ireland
  

2010

• Sittcomm.award, Wyspianski Pavilion, Kraków, Poland
• 5128, Zpafiska Gallery, Kraków, Poland