Katarzyna Kobro Award 2026 - Zofia Kulik

Zofia Kulik (born 1947)

Kulik was born in Wrocław. She studied on Faculty of Sculpture - Academy of Fine Arts, where in 1971 she graduated from the studio of Professor Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz. Her thesis involved a simultaneous projection contained of 500 slides on three screens. During studying she also attended to the lectures of Oskar Hansen, whose Open Form concept exerted a significant influence on her early artistic output.

Since 1971, she has co-created the artistic duo KwieKulik with Przemysław Kwiek. The artists created performances, installations, photographs and films, focusing on the creative process, documentation, and the relationships between art and social and political reality. In 1973, they established Pracownię Działań, Dokumentacji i Upowszechniania (PDDiU) in their apartment in Warsaw, an independent space created to present and archive their own work as well as that of other artists. In the late 1980s, their personal and artistic paths diverged, and the KwieKulik duo ceased to exist.

Since 1987, Zofia Kulik has worked independently. She creates mostly monumental, black-and-white photographic compositions using the technique of multiple exposure of photographic prints. She constructs them from hundreds of her own photographs, depicting, among other things, human figures, gestures and symbols. Her works take on shapes resembling carpets, columns, gates and mandalas. In her oeuvre, she explores themes of power, totalitarianism, violence, ideology and the mechanisms through which individuals are subordinated to the system. Her most important cycles include „Idiomy soc-wiecza”, „Gotyk Między-Narodowy”, „Broń symboliczna” and „Od Syberii do Cyberii”.

In 1997, she represented Poland at the 47th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, and in 2007, she participated in documenta 12 in Kassel. Since 2008, she has also focused on developing and making accessible the archive and artistic output of the KwieKulik duo. Her works are held in the collections of some of the world's leading art institutions, including Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1996, she was awarded the Paszport „Polityki”.