Portrait by Simon Crofts
Bio
Sylwia Kowalczyk is a Polish artist based in Edinburgh whose photographs explore themes of memory, perception, and transformation. Her process begins with photographing individual people, objects, or scenes using analogue cameras. These printed images are then torn, layered, and reassembled into new compositions — staged like theatrical sets — before being photographed again. The result is a single, final image composed of many fragments, where what is seen has already been altered, twice removed from reality.
This hands-on method draws from the visual language of Surrealist collage, echoing the work of artists like Hannah Höch and Max Ernst. It also plays with scale and perspective in the spirit of photomontage and early cinematic illusion. Kowalczyk’s use of distortion, repetition and poetic juxtaposition reflects a playful, sometimes unsettling way of seeing — one that questions what is real, what is remembered, and what is imagined.
from Metamorphoses exhibition wall text by Alexander Moore
Sylwia’s work has been recognised in awards such as Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed – the Photographers’s Gallery’s pick of the most promising graduates in UK, and reGeneration 2 as one of the most promising 80 young photographers in the world, an exhibition which is touring the world and published as a book by Thames and Hudson and Aperture Foundation. Her work was also recently featured in prestigious “The Decisive Moment: Contemporary Polish Photography Since 2000” by Adam Mazur and is included in museum collections of Musée de l'Elysée in Switzerland, The UK Parliament and numerous private collections in Poland, US, South Africa, UK and South Korea.
AWARDS
2023 Recipient of Creative Scotland Open Fund for Individuals
2022 OD Photo Prize Finalist (‘Speculations’)
2016 PDN Photo Annual 2016 Winner in 'Personal' category
2016 The Renaissance Photography Prize Shortlist
2011 Selected for Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed 2011, for The Photographers Gallery, London
2011 Shortlisted by the Scottish Parliament to take an official photo of HM The Queen
2010 Selected for reGeneration2 – Tomorrow’s Photographer’s Today, by Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne
2003 Young Photographer Award of the City of Krakow
2002 Winner, Trzcianka Polish Portrait Competition for the series 'Selfprojections'
2001 Socrates/Erasmus scholarship to study at ESAG (École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques), Paris
EXHIBITIONS
Solo
2025 Metamorphoses - ‘Afterimage’, Studies in Photography Gallery, Edinburgh, UK, curated by Alexander Moore
2021 Lethe - ‘Anatomy of Loss’, Pictura Gallery, FAR Center for Contemporary Arts, Bloomington, IN, USA with Galina Kurlat
2020 Lethe - 525 Gallery, Edinburgh
2019 Lethe - Summehrall, Edinburgh
2018 Lethe - Bratislava Photo Month, Gallery X, Slovakia
2017 Lethe - Blue Sky Gallery, The Oregon Centre for the Photographic Arts, Portland, USA
2016 Temporal | Portraits - Galeria ASP Karmelicka 16, Krakow, Poland
2012 Nightwatching - Pauza Gallery, Krakow, Poland, curated by Lukasz Kus
2012 Nightwatching - Wozownia Art Gallery, Torun, Poland, curated by Krzysztof Jurecki
2007 Chicas - Wozownia Art Gallery, Torun, Poland, curated by Krzysztof Jurecki
2006 Chicas - Boutographies Photo Festival, Montpellier
2002 Selfprojections - Parnas Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakian Month of Photography
(selected) Group
2024 ‘Dialogues on Humanity’ National Museum, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Suizspacio, Santiago du Chili, Chili; National Gallery of Fine Arts Garden and Jordan University, Jordan, Amman;
2019 - 209 Women - Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
2018 - 209 Women - UK Parliament, London
2018 'Negotiating Identity' Gallery Foto-Gen, Wroclaw, Poland (curated by Krzysztof Jurecki, with Simon Crofts, Michaela Spurna, Ji Hyun Kwon)
2017 'Lethe' selection of 10 works from the series, within 'Ambit', Photographies from Scotland', StreetLevel Photoworks, Glasgow, UK (with Tine Bek, Donnie MacLean, Blazej Marczak and Margaret Mitchell)
2016 'Lethe' The Renaissance Photography Prize, Getty Images Gallery, London
2016 'Nightwatching' I.Y.P.E 2016, Daegu Photo Biennale, South Korea (with Katrin Koenning, Wilma Hurskainen, Berndnaut Smilde and Yoshikasu Aizawa)
2014 The Collector's Eye, the Maloney Collection of photography, FOTOFEST Houston, Texas, USA (curated by FotoFest Director Steven Evans; with Lucas Foglia, Dina Litovsky, Sally Mann, William Wegmand, Toshio Shibata and others).
2014 ReGeneration 2, Landskorona Museum, Landskorona, Sweden
2013 ReGeneration 2, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Salem, USA
2013 Today, See , Beom-eo art Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
2013 reGeneration2, The State Russian Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO, St Petersburg, Russia
2012 Power to the Portrait, Edinburgh, Scotland
2011 reGeneration2, Galerie Azzedine Alaia, Paris, France
2011 reGeneration2, Caochangdi Festival, PhotoSpring Festival, Beijing, China
2011 reGeneration2, Centro de las Artes, Monterrey, Mexico
2011 reGeneration2, Rencontres Internationales de la Photo, Fez, Morocco
2011 reGeneration2, Aperture Foundation, NYC, USA
2010 reGeneration2, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy
2010 reGeneration2, Flash Forward Festival, Toronto Canada
2010 reGeneration2, Fotoweek DC, USA
2010 reGeneration2, Miami Dade College, USA
2010 reGeneration2, Pingyao International Photography festival, China
2010 reGeneration2, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 reGeneration2 at Rencontres d’Arles and Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne
2007 EcoUrbanisme - The French Institute, Edinburgh
2005 Intimacy (Human People) by Completely Naked, Campbell Works Gallery, London
2004 Nova Polska – ‘Contemporary Polish Photography' with Anna Baumgart, Marta Deskur, Wojciech Prazmowski, and Pawel Zak, at Apollonia Foundation Gallery,Strasbourg, subsequently touring to Thessaloniki House of Photography and Zamek Cultural Centre, Szczecin; curated by Anne Laval
2003 3rd Biennale of Polish Contemporary Photography, Arsenal, Poznan
EDUCATION
2008 - 2010 MFA in Photography, Edinburgh College of Art
1997 - 2002 MA in Photography and Graphic Design, Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow
2001 Graphic Design Department, École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques, Paris
PUBLIC Commissions
2019 - 2020 EHLFunds and Round Table Project - 2 large scale collages for the new East Lothian Community hospital, created as a joint work with Simon Crofts
2019 - a portrait of a female MP for 209 Women project celebration a centenary of women in UK Parliament
2012 - The Photographer’s Gallery and London Olympics ‘The World in London’
PUBLIC speaking
Link to a presentation (approx 45 mins) at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, OR about origins of ‘Lethe’
WORK IN COLLECTIONS
The UK Parliament, London
Musee de l’Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland
Numerous private collections in UK, France, Poland, US and South Korea