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Paulina Olowska

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b. 1976, Poland

Within Paulina Olowska’s practice, industry, leisure, and socialist symbolism occupy the same visual and cultural space. Her realist paintings, drawings, and collages borrow imagery from Eastern European and American popular culture creating a cross cultural reference that is evident throughout her practice, whilst engaging with the concepts of consumerism, feminism, and design. The outward appearance of Olowska’s female subjects is equally as important as the historical memories interwoven seamlessly throughout her collages and paintings. Olowska’s treatment of her subject’s materialization acts as a direct display of the spirit of the individual, which is likely to be contrasted against a uniformed surrounding reminiscent of life experienced behind the iron curtain.

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Olowska’s affinity with performance based art accounts for much of her appreciation. Most notably is Alphabet, 2005, her adaptation of Czech designer Karel Teige's typographic book ABECEDA. Presented at MoMA in 2012, performers mould their bodies to affix the letters of the alphabet, forgetting conventional forms to construct a new system of meaning. At the heart of Olowska’s artistic practice is her collaborative work, lending a platform to her contemporaries who are underrepresented. Demonstrating the disjunction of time and cultural impermeability of Eastern Europe, Olowska’s multi-faceted oeuvre establishes a dialogue with the past; she calls upon forms recognizable from multiple collective histories of modernism to adhere with an invented contemporary environment.

Text courtesy Simon Lee Gallery.


Current Exhibition | London
21 July–24 August 2022
Group Exhibition

Machines of Desire

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Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire, Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong (21 July–10 September 2022). Courtesy Simon Lee Gallery. 
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire at Simon Lee Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Current Exhibition | Hong Kong
21 July–10 September 2022
Group Exhibition

Machines of Desire

View Exhibition
Exhibition view: Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire, Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong (21 July–10 September 2022). Courtesy Simon Lee Gallery.
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China

Current & Recent Exhibitions

Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire at Simon Lee Gallery, London, United Kingdom Open Now 21 July–24 August 2022 Group Exhibition Machines of Desire London
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, Machines of Desire at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Open Now 21 July–10 September 2022 Group Exhibition Machines of Desire Hong Kong
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, Grayscale at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Closed 28 January–12 March 2022 Group Exhibition Grayscale Hong Kong
Contemporary art exhibition, Paulina Olowska, 30 Minutes Before Midnight at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Closed 19 May–19 June 2021 Paulina Olowska 30 Minutes Before Midnight Hong Kong
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, WORDS at Simon Lee Gallery, London, United Kingdom Closed 10–31 July 2020 Group Exhibition WORDS London
Contemporary art exhibition, Paulina Olowska, Destroyed Woman at Simon Lee Gallery, London, United Kingdom Closed 11 October–16 November 2019 Paulina Olowska Destroyed Woman London
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, En Plein Air at Simon Lee Gallery, London, United Kingdom Closed 19 July–31 August 2019 Group Exhibition En Plein Air London
Contemporary art exhibition, Sarah Crowner, Caitlin Keogh, Paulina Olowska, Mauvaises Herbes at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Closed 28 April–27 May 2017 Sarah Crowner, Caitlin Keogh, Paulina Olowska Mauvaises Herbes Hong Kong
Contemporary art exhibition, Group Exhibition, An Uncanny Likeness at Simon Lee Gallery, New York, USA Closed 26 January–4 March 2017 Group Exhibition An Uncanny Likeness New York
Contemporary art exhibition, Paulina Olowska, Ceramics  at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Closed 18 September–9 October 2014 Paulina Olowska Ceramics Hong Kong
Contemporary art exhibition, Paulina Olowska, Mother 200 at Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong, SAR, China Closed 13 April–26 May 2012 Paulina Olowska Mother 200 Hong Kong

Recent Artworks

Wandering Astrologer by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork painting, works on paper
Paulina Olowska Wandering Astrologer, 2021 Oil and collage on canvas
65 x 54 cm
Simon Lee Gallery Contact Gallery
Spider Painters by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork painting, mixed media
Paulina Olowska Spider Painters, 2020 Gouache, oil, printed transparency film, and embroidery on canvas
160 x 140 x 2.8 cm
Simon Lee Gallery Contact Gallery
Haunted Houses by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork painting
Paulina Olowska Haunted Houses, 2019 Oil on canvas
240 x 150 x 2.5 cm
Simon Lee Gallery Contact Gallery
Disco Ofelia and Eleuter House (after Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz) by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork sculpture
Paulina Olowska Disco Ofelia and Eleuter House (after Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz), 2019 Preserved fabric, linen, cotton, soil, incense and glazed ceramic house and stand
158 x 60 x 48 cm
Simon Lee Gallery Contact Gallery
Nina by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork painting
Paulina Olowska Nina, 2004 Painting
249.9 x 149.9 x 70 cm
Simon Lee Gallery Contact Gallery
John K on the Beach by Paulina Olowska contemporary artwork painting
Paulina Olowska John K on the Beach, 2004 Oil on canvas
172 x 68 cm
Simon Lee Gallery
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Paulina Olowska In Ocula Magazine

Artful Manifestations Ocula Feature Artful Manifestations By Diana d'Arenberg, Switzerland

Given Manifesta’s budget of a reported 5 million francs—with an alleged 8000 euros going to each of the artists to produce work—the biennial would have been better titled ‘What people do for no money’

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Hong Kong Autumn Exhibitions 2014: Walls, Landscapes And Dames Ocula Feature Hong Kong Autumn Exhibitions 2014: Walls, Landscapes And Dames By Diana d'Arenberg, Hong Kong

Hong Kong seems to be growing out of its love affair with big brand artists, some of which have had about as much appeal as a vagazzler—overexposed, brash, bling. Gone are the dot paintings and Swarovski skulls, and Maos, as the city transitions to a deeper engagement with more challenging and engaging art.

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Paulina Olowska In Related Press

Communal Luxury Related Press Communal Luxury 1 March 2019, Art in America

VOGUE POLSKA debuted in February 2018 and was instantly embroiled—perhaps by design—in heated debates around Polish national identity and self-image. When Condé Nast announced the magazine's forth

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Paulina Ołowska’s Intellectual Cocktail of Female Erotica Related Press Paulina Ołowska’s Intellectual Cocktail of Female Erotica 8 March 2018, Frieze

'The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue', quipped the American writer Dorothy Parker. I'd like to think that Parker, whose poetry was once dismissed as 'flapper ve

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The Dances of the Slavic Goddesses Related Press The Dances of the Slavic Goddesses 6 February 2017, Hyperallergic

Artist Paulina Olowska collaborated with choreographer Katy Pyle to create a suite of solo dances based a 1918 series of prints depicting Slavic deities.

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German collector Thomas Borgmann bolsters Stedelijk Museum's contemporary art collection with 600-strong donation Related Press German collector Thomas Borgmann bolsters Stedelijk Museum's contemporary art collection with 600-strong donation 5 July 2016, The Art Newspaper

The German collector Thomas Borgmann has donated more than 600 works by artists such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Paulina Olowska, Cosima von Bonin and Cerith Wyn Evans to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a move that 'augments on an international scale [our] holdings of contemporary art', museum officials say.

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Related Press Read More (4) In Related Press
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