Katarzyna Kozyra
Katarzyna Kozyra was born in Warsaw in 1963, a sculptor, photographer, performance artist, filmmaker, author of video installations and artistic actions. In 1993 she graduated from the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1998 she studied at postgraduate level under prof. Helmut Mark at Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. She is one of the leading figures of contemporary art.
Kozyra has been widely recognized and awarded for her role in shaping Polish art and culture. Her work has been regularly shown in the international arena. Kozyra’s early projects led to a nationwide discussion on the role of art within the social dialogue and became crucial for the development of the new artistic movement known as Critical Art. She received, among others, the Minister of Culture Award (Warsaw 2011), the Paszport Polityki award in 1997 and the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2011. She was granted among others: the DAAD scholarship (Berlin 2003) and the Kościuszko Foundation scholarship (New York 2000). In 1999, she received an honorable mention at the 48th Venice Biennale for the video installation Men’s Bathhouse in the Polish Pavilion. In 2011 she obtained her Doctor’s …
Katarzyna Kozyra was born in Warsaw in 1963, a sculptor, photographer, performance artist, filmmaker, author of video installations and artistic actions. In 1993 she graduated from the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1998 she studied at postgraduate level under prof. Helmut Mark at Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. She is one of the leading figures of contemporary art.
Kozyra has been widely recognized and awarded for her role in shaping Polish art and culture. Her work has been regularly shown in the international arena. Kozyra’s early projects led to a nationwide discussion on the role of art within the social dialogue and became crucial for the development of the new artistic movement known as Critical Art. She received, among others, the Minister of Culture Award (Warsaw 2011), the Paszport Polityki award in 1997 and the Award of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2011. She was granted among others: the DAAD scholarship (Berlin 2003) and the Kościuszko Foundation scholarship (New York 2000). In 1999, she received an honorable mention at the 48th Venice Biennale for the video installation Men’s Bathhouse in the Polish Pavilion. In 2011 she obtained her Doctor’s Degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. A year later, she established the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is to support activities in the area of culture and art created by young female artists at the beginning of their careers.
In 2013 the Huffington Post selected Kozyra as one of the most important artists of the new millennium. Since 2010 she has been working on her autobiographical film. In 2014 she won the Polish Film Institute/ Museum of Modern Art award at the 39th Film Festival in Gdynia for her idea of an experimental movie Project X. Kozyra’s works raise the most fundamental issues of human existence: identity and transience, life and death, illness and senility, religion and sex. She explores the area of cultural taboos related to man’s physicality,the stereotypes and forms of behaviour embedded in social life. In each of her works, Kozyra violates these taboos, risking public outcry. Although she is classified as a new media artist, in her art she combines elements of visual arts, theatre, performance, dance and choreography.
Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery
