Paweł Althamer (born 12 May 1967,

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) is a Polish 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 involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art ob ...

, 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. V ...

Life and work

In the years 1988-1993, he studied sculpture at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. Since the mid-1990s, he has been collaborating with the Foksal Gallery 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 t ...

3 in

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. In 2004, he won the

Vincent Award The Vincent Award was a Dutch prize awarded to a European artist whose works were deemed highly relevant in contemporary art. The award was awarded every two years in the Netherlands from the year 2000 to 2014. Five artists were nominated, and the ...

from the Broere Charitable Foundation in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. In 2007, he presented the exhibition ''One of many'' with the

Nicola Trussardi Foundation The Nicola Trussardi Foundation is a non-profit institution for the promotion of contemporary art and culture. Created in 1996, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation ran its own exhibiting space in Piazza della Scala in Milan. From autumn 2003, under the ...

. 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, porce ...

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 Katarzyna Kozyra (born 1963) is a Polish video artist. She studied German studies at the Warsaw University, University of Warsaw (1985–1988). In 1993, she also graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw where she studied sculpture and Hoc ...

. Under the working title ‘Common Space—Private Space’, Kowalski foregrounded the work of art as an effect of complex

non-verbal communication Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (Haptic communication, haptics), voice (prosody (lingui ...

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 realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and a ...

: ‘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 t ...

, 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 worksb " The Venetians" was exhibited in the arsenale section of the 2013

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. Also in 2013, he took part in Performa 13 presenting
Biba Performa
' where he collaborated with multiple artists. In 2015, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) 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 alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

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

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

, London, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Musée National d’Art Moderne,

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Paris

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

, New York, and Helsinki Art Museum.

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