Joanna Piotrowska
Joanna Piotrowska was born in 1985. Studied Photography at the Royal College of Art in London and Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków.
Her photographic practice focuses on familial structures and their relationship to the wider systems—including politics, economics, social, and cultural life. She explores the past and the present, showing all the inequalities of power and psychological drama, and translating the gestures and everyday intimate behaviors into new scenarios – giving them an almost caricature-like quality. Piotrowska uses her surroundings to show the anxiety and psychological tension of the domestic space, rather as a document of a performance than a documentary image.
She lives and works between London and Warsaw.
Works in collections
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
Tate Britain, London, UK
The ING Polish Art Foundation, Warsaw, PL
Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK
British National Photography Collection, Bradford, UK
Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2019
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2019
silver gelatin hand print
"Enclosures" is a series of photographs that documents empty, man-made zoo structures built for the express purpose of containment and the domination of animals. Piotrowska photographed these vacated spaces, creating images that are haunting in their emptiness.
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2018
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2018
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2018
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Enclosure
2018
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Stainless steel, double-sided mirror
2019
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Stainless steel, double-sided mirror
2019
silver gelatin hand print
The „Animal Enrichment” series of photographs depicts devices, toys, and tools used to either entertain or train animals forced into captivity.
Joanna Piotrowska
Animal Handling Gloves
2019
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Animal Handling Gloves
2019
silver gelatin hand print
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Joanna Piotrowska
Frowst I
2013-2014
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Frowst I
2013-2014
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
"Frantic" is a series of photographs documenting temporary tent-like shelter structures built inside different households. The idea comes from a children's game known around the world, in which kids build a bunker within their own domestic space, using a mix of furniture and personal objects found at home. Piotrowska decided to transfer it into adult world and shot both shelters and their inhabitants first in Lisbon and later in London, Warsaw and Rio de Janeiro.
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Frantic series,
2017
silver gelatin hand print
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Installation view of Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices at Tate Britain, 2019. Photo: Tate Photography (Matt Greenwood)
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2015
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2014
silver gelatin hand print
Joanna Piotrowska
Untitled, from the Self-defense series,
2014
silver gelatin hand print
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
Installation view of Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices at Kunsthalle Basel, 2019
CV 
solo exhibitions
2024
- Joanna Piotrowska, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, FR
- unseeing eyes, restless bodies, ICA, Philadelphia, USA
- Kochasz ty dom co ciszą swą, Women’s Rights Center, Poznań, PL
2023
- 砦 Toride, Hagiwara Projects, Tokyo, JP
- Entre Nous, LE BAL, Paris, FR
2022
- Sisters and Brothers: 500 Years of Siblings in Art, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen, DE
- Sub Rosa, Joanna Piotrowska & Formafantasma, Phillida Reid, London, UK / duo exhibiton
- manifesto of fragility, 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, FR
- Sleeping Throat, Bitter Thirst Project Space Shifting Present Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, DE
- Joanna Piotrowska & FormaFantasma ARCH, Athens, GR
2021
- Thump, Stiftung Insel Hombroich, Neuss, DE
- Are we home yet?, Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE
2020
- Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
- Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, PT
2019
- All our false devices, Tate Britain, London, UK
- Stable Vices, Kunsthalle Basel, CH
2018
- CONDO Mexico City, Madragoa and Dawid Radziszewski hosted by Arredondo/Arozarena, MX
- Frieze London, Southard Reid booth, London, UK
2017
- Untitled, Southard Reid, London, UK
- Art Basel Statements, Dawid Radziszewski booth, Basel, CH
- SP-Arte, Madragoa Gallery booth, São Paulo, BR
2016
- Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
- Paris Internationale, Dawid Radziszewski booth, Paris, FR
- LISTE Art Fair Basel, Dawid Radziszewski, Basel, CH
- Frantic, Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, PT
2015
- Hester, Southard Reid, London, UK
- How Are You?, Księgarnia | Wystawa, Kraków, PL
- Frowst, Ethnographic Museum, Krakow Photomonth, Kraków, PL
2014
- s.w.a.l.k., Project Space, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK
selected group exhibitions
2024
- “Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here?”: Photography and Touch, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Stranger Things, Neue Galerie Gladbeck, DE
- to display, to support, to care, Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna, AT
- The Breath of a House is the Sound of Voices Within, Akademie Der Kunst, Belin, DE
- The Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions 2024, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo,JP
- I Opened the Curtain to See What Lays Behind, carlier | gebauer, Berlin, DE
- Natura Morta, Ilenia, London, UK
2023
- Her Voice – Echoes of Chantal Ackerman, FOMU foto museum, Antwerp, BE
- Giorni felici?, ZACentrale – Fondazione Merz, Palermo, IT
- The Land Before Time, Veterinary Faculty Leipzig, University of Leipzig, DE
- This is me, this is you. The Eva Felten Photography Collection. Museum Brandhorst, Munich, DE
- (Wahl-) Familie. Die, Die Wir Sind, Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Ravensburg, DE
- Oltre Terra. Why Wool Matters, Formafantasma at The National Museum of Oslo, NO
- Ruhr Ding: Schlaf, Urbane Künste Ruhr, DE
- Cursed Union, Friends Indeed, San Francisco, USA
2022
- The Milk of Dreams 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, IT
- manifesto of fragility 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, Lyon, FR
2021
- Who Will Write the History of Tears. Artists on Women’s Rights, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, PL
- La Boîte-en-Valise, Office Baroque, online
- 60 years, Tate Britain, London, UK
- British Art Show IX, UK
- Architecture of Confinemet, BNKR, Munich, DE
2020
- Our Red Sky, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, SE
- Panic TV, steirischer herbst, Graz, AU
2019
- occupy and echo (a stage), ReadingRoom, Melbourne, AU
- Yorkshire Sculpture International, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
- Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, Munich, DE
- Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art Coimbra, PT
- Jen Liu, Joanna Piotrowska, Jesse Wine, Simone Subal, New York, US
2018
- Antarctica. An exhibition on alienation, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AT
- Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
- Being: New Photography 2018, MoMA, New York, US
- We don’t need another hero, 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, DE
- CONDO London, Southard Reid, London, UK
- La Bottega Oscura, GRGLT, Turin, IT
- Material Environments, Te Tetley, Leeds, UK
- SUPERSTITION, Museum Marres, Maastricht, NL
- Structures of meaning / Architecture of perception, Gateway, Abu Dhabi, AE
- SCULPTURES, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, US
2017
- Room, Sadie Coles, UK
- Room, Mead Gallery, Warwick Art Center, UK
- Tese Rotten Words, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, UK
- Big towers, ICA, Singapore, SG
- O Céu dos Oblíquos. Madragoa Gallery, Lisbon, PT
- GAUDIOPOLIS, Off-Biennale, Budapest, HU
- Frieze London, Southard Reid booth, London, UK
- SEVER, Galeria Boavista, Lisbon, PT
- Tese Rotten Words, Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff, UK
- Something halfway between the typical atmosphere I breathe and the tip of my reeality, Tabacalera, Madrid, ES
2016
- Such Are Promises, Darren Bader, Sadie Coles, London, UK
- Give Me Yesterday, Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Milan, IT
- Salon of New Photography 2016, Raster Gallery, Warsaw, PL
2015
- Lea Cetera, Daniel Lipp & Joanna Piotrowska, Sunday At Fair, London, UK
- Jerwood and Photoworks Awards 2015, Jerwood Space, London, UK
- True Players, W139, Amsterdam, NL
- Art Lending Library project by Walker & Bromwich, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK
- Kombucha, Contemporary Art Gallery Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków, PL
- Altrimenti che essere, Galleria Oltredimore, Gender Bender Festival, Bologna, IT
- Krasna-Krausz Book Awards and First Book Award 2015, Media Space, Science Museum, London, UK
2014
- What love has to do with it, Project Space, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
2013
- Sleeper Wakes, Aperto Gallery, St Petersburg, RU
- Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
- Family Politics, Jerwood Space, London, UK
- Fly me through the night, Pilot, Private house at Primrose Hill, London, UK
- Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Spike Island, Bristol, UK
- Call XV, Luis Adelantado Gallery, Valencia, SP
- 21st Century Art and Design, RCA 2013, Christie’s, London, UK
- MA Graduation Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2012
- The Suspension of History, Basement Project Space, Cork, IE
2010
- Sittcomm.award, Wyspianski Pavilion, Kraków, PL
- 5128, Zpafiska Gallery, Kraków, PL
gallery exhibitions
- Joanna Piotrowska, Ewelina Chrzanowska, Adam Rzepecki, Warsaw Gallery Weekend 201821.09–27.10.2018
- Joanna Piotrowska, CONDO Mexico City14.04–12.05.2018
- E. Jane, El Kazovsky, Joanna Piotrowska, Katalin Ladik, Raúl De Nieves, Whitney Claflin, Jak tu pięknie i niech nigdy cię nie zapomną.15.11—16.12.2017
- Joanna Piotrowska12.02—25.03.2016