Paweł Kruk
Paweł Kruk was born in 1976. Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań and Rijks Akademie in Amsterdam.
Kruk is an enigmatic artist whose work mainly involves staging performative situations. He approaches each new piece like a writer would approach a blank page: true and untrue fuse together, projects evolve, change, and are rewritten depending on which character enters the story.
Lives and works in _____, California.
Paweł Kruk
Stay Away
2010
Paweł Kruk
Stay Away
2010
Paweł Kruk
AM I WHITE OR AM I WHITE?
2015
acrylic on canvas 190 x 120 cm
Paweł Kruk
AM I WHITE OR AM I WHITE?
2015
acrylic on canvas 190 x 120 cm
Paraphrase of the American saying: “Am I right, or am I right?”, used to emphasize the unquestionable truth and indisputable fact. The work refers, among others, to the diploma of the artist – the film in which he starred as Michael Jordan. For a few years the topic of basketball, especially Jordan, was one of the main themes in Kruk’s work.
Paweł Kruk
Larger Than Life
2000
video
Paweł Kruk
Larger Than Life
2000
video
Kruk’s final MFA work. A faux interview with Michael Jordan, in which the artist plays the role of the superstar, using lines borrowed from Jordan’s 1993 autobiography ‘Rare Air: Michael on Michael.’
Paweł Kruk
Pick-up Game
2001
performance
Paweł Kruk
Pick-up Game
2001
performance
A performance at the opening of the final show of the VII Advanced Course in Visual Arts in Como, Italy. The artist shot hoops on a court outlined by a red carpet, inside the San Francesco Church. He was wearing only AIR Jordans, a jock strap and an elbow protector.
Paweł Kruk
2/15
2013
photographic documentation
Paweł Kruk
2/15
2013
photographic documentation
During this ‘on-demand’ performance, the artist sang a song to any person who asked him to sing it. During the performance, he dropped artificial tears into his eyes, calling them the tears he’d collected earlier on various
occasions in his life. The lyrics of the song are an amalgam of paraphrases of section 2 and section 15 of Tagore’s
Gitanjali, originally performed by Marquis De Tren (featur- ing Bonnie Prince Billy and Mick Turner) on the ‘Get on Jolly’ EP.
Paweł Kruk
2009
The Lost Interview,
Single-channel video
Paweł Kruk
2009
The Lost Interview,
Single-channel video
A still from the reenacted screen test, based on the original recording with Bruce Lee for the 'Green Hornet' TV series. Kruk is impersonating the actor, adding content that is not in the original footage but is directly quoted from the book 'Louise Bourgeois'. Kruk is sitting in front of a drawn reproduction of the set where the test took place.
Paweł Kruk
The Lost Interview
2009
video 5’51’’
Paweł Kruk
The Lost Interview
2009
video 5’51’’
A re-enacted interview with Bruce Lee, in which the artist plays the role of the superstar, lip-syncing to transformed audio from ‘The Lost Interview with Bruce Lee.’ The interview was originally recorded for The Pierre Berton Show on December 9, 1971 and is considered his last.
Paweł Kruk
Winning The Water: The Swimmer As Hero
2010
performance
Paweł Kruk
Winning The Water: The Swimmer As Hero
2010
performance
As part of the ‘Transplanted’ exhibition at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery (SFAC), the artist per- formed a swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park in San Francisco. The feat was accompanied by an original score performed live from a kayak by the band Coconut. The public was invited to gather at Aquatic Park. A small, selected group watched the act from a nearby boat. The work was promoted by a poster designed by Kruk.
It featured a black and white photograph of the artist standing next to his father-in-law, an avid open water swimmer.
CV 
solo exhibitions
2016
- 100. anniversery of the “Cabaret Voltaire”, reenactment of Adam Rzepecki’s happening from January 30, 1986, Main Square, Kraków, PL
2015
- All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, National Museum in Kraków, PL
- Remigare Necesse Est Vivere Non Est Necesse, Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn, NL (with Seamus Cater)
- What Does an Artist Want?, Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw, PL
2014
- Egyptian Secrets or Pawel Investigates the Afterlife of James Lee Byars, Beirut, Cairo, EG
- What Does an Artist Want?, Gospel Flat Farm Stand, Bolinas, US
2013
- The Art of Not Knowing, Corner College, Zurich, CH
2012
- RijksakademieOpen, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL
2011
- RijksakademieOpen, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL
- Vanities, Witryna, Warsaw, PL
2010
- Transplanted, San Francisco Art Commission, San Francisco, US
2009
- What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, Goldex Poldex, Kraków, PL
- Talking To Yourself Is Very Important, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, US
2004
- Messiah College, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
2001
- Manipulator, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
2000
- Larger Than Life, Multikino Multiplex Cinema, Poznań, PL
selected group exhibitions
2015
- curated by_Sebastian Cichocki: Łukasz Jastrubczak – hollow blocks in windowless room, Knoll Galerie Wien, Vienna, AT
2014
- Cacophony of Things, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, DE
- The Long Conversation, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, US
2013
- Proximities, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, US
- Baw-lal, Juliette Jongma Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2012
- Yes We Are Open, NIMk, Amsterdam, NL
- Three Artists Walk Into A Bar,de Appel, Amsterdam, NL
- FlowerCASTLE, Kasteel Keukenhof, Lisse, NL
2009
- Night Tide, San Francisco, US
- Portrait of the 21st Century, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
- A Trip Down (False) Memory Lane, Lexington Club, San Francisco, US
2008
- Bike Club, Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw, PL
2007
- Hear The Wind Sing, 826 Valencia, San Francisco, US
2006
- You Won’t Feel A Thing: On Panic, Obsession, Anesthesia, and Rituality, Kunsthaus Dresden Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dresden, DE
2005
- Egocentric, Immoral, Obsolete – Artists’ Contemporary Portraits, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
- Boys, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Kraków, PL
2004
- Flipside, Artists Space, New York, US
- Art, Sport, Video, Musée Géo-Charles d’Echirolles, Echirolles, FR
2003
- The American Effect, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
2002
- The Young Are Realists, Really, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
- Polacos. New Art From Poland, Capella de I’Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu, Barcelona, SP
2001
- Traces of the Art Course with Marina Abramovic, Galeria Viafarini, Milan, IT
selected press
- Anuradha Vikram, Nostalgia and its Discontents, Daily Serving, 2013
- Paweł Kruk i Juliette Delventhal o projekcie “We’re Like Gardens”, Culture.pl, 2013
- Tessa Verheul, Pawel Kruk Magazujn / Amsterdam, Flash Art, 2013
- Traci Vogel, At his desk in the gallery, Pawel Kruk will se you now, SF Weekly, 2009
gallery exhibitions
- Paweł Kruk, Go Surf in Your Own Hometown3.12.2022-7.01.2023
- Paweł Kruk, What does an artist want?14.05—13.06.2015