Paweł Althamer (born 12 May 1967,

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

contemporary

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

performer The performing arts are The arts, arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art object ...

, collaborative artist and creator of installations, and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

Life and work

In the years 1988-1993, he studied sculpture at the

Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie) is a public university of visual arts and applied arts located in the Polish capital. The Academy traces its history back to the Department of Arts founded at the Warsaw U ...

. Since the mid-1990s, he has been collaborating with the

Foksal Gallery The Foksal Gallery or Galeria Foksal is a non-commercial gallery space in Warsaw, Poland established in 1966, that shows works by contemporary avant-garde artists. History The Foksal Gallery was founded in 1966 by a group of Polish art critics and ...

in Warsaw. In 2000, he participated in

Manifesta Manifesta, also known as the European Nomadic Biennial, is a European pan-regional contemporary cultural biennale. History Manifesta was founded in 1994 by Dutch art historian Hedwig Fijen. The first edition took place in Rotterdam. One of ...

3 in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. In 2004, he won the

Vincent Award The Vincent Award is a Dutch prize awarded to a European artist whose works are deemed highly relevant in contemporary art. The award is held every two years in the Netherlands. Five artists are nominated for the award, and are exhibited at the St ...

from the Broere Charitable Foundation in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In 2007, he presented the exhibition ''One of many'' with the Nicola Trussardi Foundation. His longest-running collaboration is with the Nowolipie Group, an organisation in

for adults with mental or physical disabilities, to whom he has been teaching a Friday night

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

class since the early 1990s. In 2008 Althamer arranged for the group to wear matching overalls and take a trip on a biplane, which became the subject of a short film by Althamer’s frequent collaborator, Artur Żmijewski (Winged, 2008). Althamer was part of the so-called Kowalski Studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, along with many of today’s leading generation of Polish artists, including Artur Żmijewski and Katarzyna Kozyra. Under the working title ‘Common Space—Private Space’, Kowalski foregrounded the work of art as an effect of complex

non-verbal communication Nonverbal communication (NVC) is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, posture, and body language. It includes the use of social cues, kinesics, distance (proxemic ...

performed by artists in interaction with each other, neutralising

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...

: ‘each of the participants had at his/her disposal “a space of their own” �� where they could build elements of their own

visual language A visual language is a system of communication using visual elements. Speech as a means of communication cannot strictly be separated from the whole of human communicative activity which includes the visual and the term 'language' in relation to ...

, and the “common space” open to everyone, where they could conduct simultaneous dialogues with the other participants. All without using words.’ Althamer's large series of works "The Venetians" was exhibited in the arsenale section of the 2013

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 2015, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

for his artistic achievements. He is represented by Neugerriemschneider, Berlin and Fundacja Galerii Foksal, Warsaw. His solo exhibitions include

Bonnefantenmuseum The Bonnefanten Museum is a museum of fine art in Maastricht, Netherlands. History The museum was founded in 1884 as the historical and archaeological museum of the Dutch province of Limburg. The name Bonnefanten Museum is derived from the Frenc ...

, Maastricht,

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

, London,

Deutsche Guggenheim The Deutsche Guggenheim was an art museum in Berlin, Germany, open from 1997 to 2013.Kuhla, Karoline"Final Exhibition: The Guggenheim's Farewell to Berlin" ''Spiegel Online'', November 15, 2012 It was located in the ground floor of the Deutsche B ...

, Berlin, Musée National d’Art Moderne,

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris

New Museum of Contemporary Art The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...

, New York, and

Helsinki Art Museum Helsinki Art Museum ( fi, Helsingin taidemuseo, sv, Helsingfors konstmuseum), abbreviated as HAM, is an art museum in Helsinki, Finland. It is located in Tennispalatsi in Kamppi. The museum reopened after renovations and rebranding (as HAM) in 20 ...

References

External links

Paweł Althamer
at Culture.pl
Pawel Althamer at Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Althamer, Pawel 1967 births Living people Polish contemporary artists Polish sculptors Polish male sculptors Artists from Warsaw

Life and work

Further reading

See also

References

External links