Marta Zgierska is a Polish visual artist, photographer and photobook author. She studied photography at the National Film School in Łódź, polish philology and social communication and journalism at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
In her artistic and theoretical practice Zgierska explores trauma, liminal experiences and the tensions they generate, often using her own body, simple objects and reduced spaces as primary material. Since surviving a serious car accident in 2013, the physically affected body has become a key tool for examining vulnerability, withdrawal and the pressure exerted by contemporary norms of femininity and “proper” functioning. Working in carefully staged photographic series and installations such as Post, Afterbeauty, Votive Figure, Takeover or the book Garden, she develops a restrained visual language of suspension and silence, seeking ways to describe alternative sensibilities in an overstimulated and increasingly exhausted society.
Her debut series Post won the prestigious Prix HSBC pour la Photographie in Paris (2016) and was published as a book by Actes Sud, also receiving the PDN Photo Annual photobook award. Zgierska has been nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award (2018, 2021), the DZ BANK Art Collection Fellowship (2019) and the ING Unseen Talent Award, and in 2019 was named Artist of the Year at the DongGang International Photo Festival in South Korea. Her works have been widely exhibited, including solo shows at the Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, the Fort Institute of Photography in Warsaw, DongGang Museum of Photography, Gowen Contemporary in Geneva and in the Project Room at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Jałowy bieg, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
2025
Wewnętrze, Centrala Gallery, Poznan, Poland
2024
Tomorrow crumbles in hands, Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
2024
Lico, Muncipal Gallery BWA, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2024
Internal Landscapes, Eastern Photography Festival, Lublin, Poland
2024
From all angles, Project Room Zacheta National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
2023
Short Circuit, FaVU Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
2023
Crust, UHAUS, Ostrava, Czech Republic
2023
Edema, BWA Krosno, Poland
2021
Blush, Galerie Sintitulo, Mougins, France
2020
Blush, Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
2020
Artist of the Year, DongGang Museum of Photography, South Korea
2019
Afterbeauty & Votive Figure, Galerie Intervalle, Paris, France
2019
Blush, Biala Gallery, Lublin, Poland
2019
Post, The Fort Institute of Photography, Warsaw, Poland
2018
2017 Post, Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
2017
Post, Galerie Intervalle, Paris, France
2017
Post, Filter Space Gallery, Chicago, USA
2017
Post, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2017
TWO MEN SHOWS
Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie
2016
/ Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France
/ Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
/ Musee de la Photographie Andre Villers & Galerie Sintitulo, Mougins, France
/ L’Arsenal, Metz, France
/ Arret sur l’Image Galerie, Bordeaux, France
PERFORMANCES
I would prefer to subtract, Tychy Performance Festival, Tychy, Poland
2024
Ablution I, Mariya Hoyin, Diary during the war, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
2022
Gas Pepper, Malamut Performance Meeting, GAFU Gallery, Ostrava, Czech Republic / videoperformance
2022
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Prix Bob Calle 2023 du livre d’artiste, The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2023
The Ongoing Power of Photography, curator Michel Frizot, Daegu Biennale Photo, Daegu, South Korea
2023
Care_Full, with Dimitris Mertzos, Julie-Michèle Morin, Jul Schadauer, Letta Shtohryn, Postcity, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria
2023
Photoforum, Kunsthaus Pasquart, The Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, Switzerland
2023
EXP(L)O, curator: Robert Kuśmirowski, the Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, The eye never sleeps Festival, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2023
Verwachsungen, Polish Institute Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
2022
I AM, Museum of Adam Mickiewicz in Smielow, Department of the National Museum in Poznan, Poland
2022
2022 L’Œil qui voyage, Galerie Intervalle, Paris, France
2022 Ми з Вами! / We with you!, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin, Poland
2022 Personal Portrait, Pop-Up Ogrodowa Gallery, Lodz, Poland
2022 Garden, Les Photographiques Festival, Le Mans, France
2022 Women Photographers, Pawilon Francuski, World Expo Dubai, Emiraty Arabskie
2021 Takeover, Noorderlicht International Photo Festival: The Makeable Mind, Groningen, Netherlands
2021 Garden, Who Is Next To You, Museum of Odesa Modern Art, Odesa Photo Days, Odesa, Ukraine
2021 Midnight at Noon. Performance exhibition, Lubomirski Palace, National Museum in Lublin, Poland
2021 Collection – Sammlung. Works from the collection of the Małopolska Foundation of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sammlung Pastula, BWA Tarnów, Poland
2021 Photo Basel / Gowen Contemporary, Basel, Switzerland
2021 Unseen Amsterdam / Galerie Intervalle, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2021 Asylum, The Center of the Worlds is Here, The Ukrainian National House in Przemysl, Poland
2021 Personal Portrait, We are All Photographers, Promotional Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2021 IWPA 2020, KYOTOGRAPHIE International Photography Festival, Kyoto, Japan
2020 Photo Basel Berlin / Gowen Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2020 Votive Figure, Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Greece
2020 Votive Figure, Photo Israel, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2019 Rituals I: Correlations, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria
2019 Takeover, PGS National Gallery, Sopot, Poland
2019 Polyptyque / Galerie Intervalle, Marseille, France
2019 artgenève / Gowen Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
2018 Galeristes Art Fair / Galerie Intervalle, Paris, France
2018 Identity Issues, Riga Photography Biennial, Latvia
2018 Angst, Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent, Belgium
2018 5×2=10, Gowen Contemporary, Switzerland
2017 Unseen Amsterdam / Galerie Intervalle, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 Beirut Art Fair / Gowen Contemporary, Beirut, Lebanon
2017 Post, Backlight Photo Festival, Tampere Art Museum, Finland
2016 Post, Festival Circulation(s), Paris, France
2016 Post, Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Greece
2016 Post, FotoLeggendo Festival, Rome, Italy
2016 Post, Encontros da Imagem International Photography Festival, Braga, Portugal
2016 Post, Bitume Photofest, Lecce, Italy
2016 Salon of New Photography, Raster Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2015 LensCulture Emerging Talents, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, USA
2015 Post, Malmo Fotobiennal, Sweden
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Maison de la Photographie, Lille, France
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Biennale of Photography in Poznan, Poland
SELECTED AWARDS
Prix Bob Calle du livre d’artiste, Paris, France / special award
2023
Polish Photographic Publication of the Year / honorable mention
2023
Foam Paul Huf Award, Amsterdam, Netherlands / nomination
2021
2020 International Women In Photo Association Award, Paris, France
2020
DZ BANK Art Collection Fellowship, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2019 / nomination
Artist of the Year, DongGang International Photo Festival, South Korea
2019
PDN Photo Annual, Photo Books, New York, USA
2017
2016 Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, 2016
2016 Daylight Photo Awards, USA
2016
ING Unseen Talent Award, Amsterdam, Netherlands / nomination
2016
FotoLeggendo Giovanni Tabo Prize, Rome, Italy
2016
Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, Best Conceptual Photo Project, Georgia
2016
Best Photography Book from Central and Eastern Europe 2015-2016, European Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia / honorable mention
2016
LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2015
GRANTS / FELLOWSHIPS
2023 IDSA x Ars Electronica Founding Lab, Linz, Austria
NAWA Ster Fellowship
2022
Santander Universidades grant
2022
Grant in the field of culture of the Marshal of the Lublin Province
2021
Grant of the National Center for Culture as part of the Young Poland program in the field of visual arts
2021
Grant of the Mayor of the City of Lublin, Poland
2019
Mazovia Creative Award, Warsaw, Poland (winner)
Grant of the Mayor of the City of Lublin, Poland
2018
Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant, Tokyo, Japan
2016
RESIDENCES
Sculpture everywhere, The Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, Poland
2024
Artistic Residency, Studio VVV, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia
2023
Artistic Residency in frame of NAWA Ster Fellowship, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
2022
Artistic Residency, BWA Krosno, Poland
2021
CreArt Residency, Kaunas, Lithuania
2019
Within the Frame of Sopot Residency, Sopot, Poland
2019
BOOKS
Internal Landscapes, self-published, Warsaw
2023
Garden, Blow Up Press, Warsaw, Poland
2022