Joanna Rajkowska was born in Poland in 1968 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków, graduating with a Master’s Degree in mural painting in 1993, and completed an MA in History of Art from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. She extended her education at the State University of New York. Her films, sculpture and installations have been exhibited in major museums, international festivals and biennials. Her public sculpture Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue, a 15-meter palm tree, is permanently installed in the centre of Warsaw and is considered one of the most iconic works of Polish public art.
Some of Rajkowska’s most acclaimed public art projects include The Hatchling – The Line, London (2019), I shall not enter into your haven, Open City, Crossroads, Lublin (2017), Trafostation, Wrocław, Poland (2016), Rosa’s Passage in Łódź (2014), Soundlessness, Gdynia, Poland (2014), All-Seeing Eye, Open Art Projects, Brasilioa, Brazil, (2013), Forcing a Miracle, Frieze Projects, UK (2012), Benjamin in Konya, British Council, Turkey (2010), Chariot, The Showroom, London, UK (2010), Oxygenator, Warsaw, Poland, (2007), Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue, Warsaw, Poland (2002).
Amongst most notable Awards and Fellowships are Nomination for Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Award 2019, Austria; 2012 Award of the City of Warsaw; 2010 Grand Prize, Fundacja Kultury, Warsaw, Poland; 2009 Pro Helvetia grant and residency, PROGR, Bern, Switzerland; 2007 Paszport Polityki for Best Visual Artist; Visegrad Artist Residency, Budapest, Hungary; 2006 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship IASPIS grant and residency, Umeå, Sweden; 2001 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Scholarship; 1998 The Civitella Ranieri Fellowship; 1997 The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship; 1996 The ArtsLink Partnership, Buffalo, USA; President’s Award of the City of Kraków; 1992 Kunsthaus Horn, Austria.
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Monika Fabijanska on Night Herons
Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman, A disruptive desire to be where it stands, 2020
Tom Jeffreys, What branches grow out of this stony rubbish, 2019
Tom Jeffreys, Joanna Rajkowska, Suiciders, 2018
Killing Pain with Language, Alice Butler, 2015 (on Painkillers)
Engaged Urbanism. Cities & Methodologies, 2016
‘Busan Biennale 2016’ – Project 2, Hybridizing Earth Discussing Multitude, 2016
The Female Body in the Looking-Glass: Contemporary Art, Aesthetics and Genderland, 2016
Transnational Embodied Belonging Within ‘Edge Habitats’,
Basia Sliwinska, Third Text, Volume 29, 2015 – Issue 4-5, Trans-figurations: Transnational Perspectives on Domestic Spaces
Radical Space: Exploring Politics and Practice, 2016
Medcine in Art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Cracow, 2016
The Wall. Art Face to Face With Borders, Imago Mundi Foundation in cooperation with CSW Kronika and Careof DOCVA in Milan, 2016
Where the Beast is Buried, 2013
The task of the Translator/ Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers/ مترجمك
When? Where? By Whom? For Whom? Why? How? Thinking about Caring and Motherhood through Contemporary Art, curator: Oko Goto, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Japan, 2023
Le Serpent Cosmique, curated by Fabrice Bouseau, Le Musée de l’Hospice Comtesse, Lille, France, 2022
Event Horizon, Gdańsk City Gallery, Poland, 2022
Rhizopolis, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland, 2021
Human, 7 Questions, (Leeum Museum Touring) Jeonnam Art Museum, Korea
Live Acting, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland, 2021
Night Herons, film (in collaboration with Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman), Steirischer Herbst ‘20, Graz Austria, 2020
Unflattening, The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art MMCA, Seoul (KR)
Art in the Penumbral Age, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, group exhibition
Everyday Forms of Resistance, Centre for Contemporary Art, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
Illness as a Source of Art, National Museum of Poznań, Poland , 2019
I am a Dependent Object, Brno Art Open, Brno, Czech Republic, 2019
Architecture After The Sunset, SKALA Gallery, Poznań, Poland , 2018
Skip the Line! Populism and Unfulfilled Promises, Biennale Warszawa (MA3450), Poland, 2018
Altered States: Substances, Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany, 2018
The Face, The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germa, 2017
Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitude, Busan Biennale, South Korea , 2016
Making use: Life in Post-artistic Times, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland, 2016
Medicine in Art, MOCAK, Museum of Modern Art, Krakow, Poland , 2016
DE-MO-CRA-CY, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland , 2016
Homage to Kantor, The Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan , 2015
Vot Ken You Mach, Muzeum Współczesne, Wrocław, Poland, 2015
Progress and Hygiene, Zachęta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland , 2014
The Light of the Lodge, Charim Gallery, Vienna, Austria , 2014
Critical Juncture, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India , 2014
As You Can See: Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland , 2014
Regenerate Art, Kunstverein München, Munich, Germany, 2014
A Tourist In Other People’s Reality, Vestry House Museum, London, UK, 2013
Public Folklore, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria , 2011
6th Curitiba Biennial, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil , 2011
1989, End of History or Beginning of the Future?, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York, 2009
![Joanna Rajkowska <br />Forcing a Miracle, 2016<br />video installation, Yod Yod Lamed and other films [5 videos]](https://letrangere.net/wp-content/gallery/joanna-rajkowska-videos/Joanna-Rajkowska-Forcing-A-Miracle-2016.jpg "Joanna Rajkowska <br />Forcing a Miracle, 2016<br />video installation, Yod Yod Lamed and other films [5 videos]")
![Joanna Rajkowska<br />Benjamin in Konya, 2010<br />Konya, Turkey [public project]](https://letrangere.net/wp-content/gallery/joanna-rajkowska-videos/Joanna-Rajkowska-Benjamin-in-Konja-2010.jpg "Joanna Rajkowska<br />Benjamin in Konya, 2010<br />Konya, Turkey [public project]")
Sorry: Anti-Monument, curator, Monika Branicka, Kaponiera roundabout, Poznań, Poland
Joanna Rajkowska, The Hatchling, Cody Dock, The Line, London
Death of the Palm Tree, 1-14 June 2019, Warsaw, Poland
Chariot, Art Night 2018, London, UK
I shall not enter into your heaven, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw, 18-19 November 2017
Forcing a Miracle, Museum of History of Polish Jews POLIN, Warsaw, Poland, 2016
Soon Everything Will Change, 2014
The Peterborough Child, 2012, permanent
Joanna Rajkowska, The Hatchling, Cody Dock, The Line, London
Joanna Rajkowska, Nomination for the International Anni and Heinrich Sussmann Artist Award 2019
Joanna Rajkowska in conversation with prof. Ken Gemes
Frieze Sculpture, (The Hatchling), Regents Park, London, UK , 2019
Joanna Rajkowska, Illness as a Source of Art, National Museum Poznań, Poznań, Poland
Joanna Rajkowska, Painkillers, Permanent exhibition, Susch Muzeum, Switzerland
Joanna Rajkowska, Skip the Line! Populism and Unfulfilled Promises, 26 October – 30 November 2018
Joanna Rajkowska, Chariot, Art Night, London, 7 July 2018
Art Brussels, Solo presentation, Discovery Section, Booth D12 – 22 April 2018
Architecture After the Sunset, Solo exhibition, SKALA Poznań – 13 April – 15 May 2018
Suiciders, TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland
I shall not enter into your heaven, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw, 18-19 November 2017
I shall not enter into your heaven, In the frame of the project Open City, Crossroads, Poland, 2017
Faces, The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, Germany, 2017
Konteksty, Event Horizon, 2017
Stitching and unstitching, Markiewicz / Rajkowska, 2017
THE FACE. A SEARCH FOR CLUES, The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden, Germany, 2017
The Beguiling Siren is Thy Crest, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland, 2017
Painkillers, Rampa, Istanbul, Turkey, 2017
Joanna Rajkowska, SALT Ulus, Ankara, 2016
Making use: Life in Post-artistic Times, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland, 2016
Medicine in Art, MOCAK, Museum of Modern Art, Krakow, Poland, 2016
Hybridizing Earth, Discussing Multitude, Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea, 2016
DE-MO-CRA-CY, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland, 2016
Hommage to Kantor, Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan, 2015
A Beautiful Darkness, 26 October – 30 October 2015, Central St. Martins, London, 2015
I am burning Paris (Je brûle Paris), Cité international des Arts, Paris, France, 2015
Progress and Hygiene, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, 2015
Vot Ken You Mach, Muzeum Współczesne, Wrocław, Poland, 2015
The Wall. Art Face To Face With Borders, Careof DOCVA in Milan, Italy, 2015
The Light of the Lodge, Charim Gallery, Vienna, Austria, 2014
A tourist in Other People’s Reality, Vestry House Museum, London, 2013