Joanna Piotrowska’s psychologically charged photographs probe human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere. She investigates the interaction between the human body and the environment, which is charged with social, political and anthropological issues. Through decontextualisation and exaggeration the artist challenges seemingly obvious settings and assumptions, such as the common equation of home=family=safety. Her work thus invites viewers to reconsider certainties that were taken for granted.

In 2022, Piotrowska's work was featured in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th Venice Biennale.

Joanna Piotrowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1985. She now lives and works in London, England, UK.

Education

Joanna Piotrowska studied at the Royal College of Art, London (2011 - 2013), the Jagiellonian University, Krakow (2010), the Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna (2008), the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow (2006 - 2009) and the Warsaw Film School, Warsaw (2004 - 2006).

Exhibitions

Piotrowska’ work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions such as: Sleeping Throat, Bitter Thirst, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2022); Joanna Piotrowska & Forma Fantasma ARCH, Athens (2022); Are we home yet?, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne (2021); Thump, Museum Insel Hombroich, Germany (2021); FROWST, Zacheta National Gallery of Art Warsaw, (2020); Stable Vices, Kunsthalle Basel (2019); Joanna Piotrowska, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds (2019); Art Now: All Our False Devices, Tate Britain, London (2019); Untitled, Southard Reid, London (2016); Frantic Madragoa, Lisbon (2016); Hester, Southard Reid, London (2015); How Are You?, Ksiegarnia | Wystawa, Krakow (2015); FROWST, Krakow Photomonth Festival, Krakow (2015); The Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum, Krakow (2015); s.w.a.l.k, Project Space, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland (2014)

Her work has also been shown in selected group exhibitions, including: 24h (in collaboration with Super Super Markt), BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne, (2022); The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, Venice (2022); manifesto of fragility, 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon (2022); British Art Show 9, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen (2020); The Architecture of Confinement, BNKR, Munich (2020); Red Sky, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome (2020); An Exhibition on Alienation, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2018); Being: New Photography 2018, MoMA, New York (2018)