Mirosław Bałka

Mirosław Bałka was born in 1958 in Warsaw, Poland. He lives and works between Warsaw and Otwock. He is a sculptor active in the field of video and experimental design. In 1985 he graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts where, starting from 2011, he directs the Studio of Spatial Activities at Art Media Faculty. Between 1986 and 1989 together with Mirosław Filonik and Marek Kijewski he founds the artistic group Consciousness Neue Bieremiennost. Awarded with the Mies van der Rohe Stipend by Krefeld Kunstmuseen in 1991, he is a member of Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

He received several commissions for public memorials, such as the monument to the victims of the disaster of Estonia Ferry in Stockholm in 1997, in AUSCHWITZWIELICZKA in 2009, in Cracow in 2010. He participated in many prestigious international events, such as documenta IX (1992), Kassel; Venice Biennale (1990, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2013); The Carnegie International (1995), Pittsburgh; Sao Paolo Biennale (1998); Liverpool Biennale (1999); Sydney Biennale (1992, 2006) and Santa Fe Biennale (2006). He has solo shows at Museum Arnhem (2014), Copenaghen; Museum of Art MS1 (2015), Lodz, Poland; The British School (2016), Rome. In 2012 a series of talks between Mirosław Bałka and professor Zygmunt Bauman has been released. In 2015 the artist created the scenography of the work Magic Mountainby Paweł Mykietyn. Artworks by Bałka are showcased in several institutional collections, such as Tate Modern, London; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; MOCA, Los Angeles; SFMOMA, San Francisco; MOMA, New York; Museo Hirshhorn, Washington DC; The Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museu Serralves, Porto; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Kiasma, Helsinki; Kröller-Müller, Otterlo; EMST The National Museum of Art, Athens; National Museum of Art, Osaka; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Art Museum of Tel Aviv; Lambert Collection, Avignon; Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp; Fundación Botín, Santander; Contemporary Art Museum, Zagreb. In Poland his works can be found in collections such us Muzeum Sztuki, Lodz; Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Zacheta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Modern Art Museum, Warsaw; The National Museum, Wroclaw; MOCAK, Cracow; Labirynt, Lublino; Arsenał, Bialystok.