Bio

Sylwia Kowalczyk was born in Lublin Poland. She now lives in Scotland, in Edinburgh.

Sylwia studied graphic design and photography at Krakow Academy of Fine Arts and the Edinburgh College of Art. Playful and sensual, her images include a surprising juxtaposition of interiors and landscapes with a fragile and transformative aspect of paper prints and of a human body. Objects get enlarged to the point of abstraction when she plays with new ways of approaching a studio photography practice and fluctuates between photography and installation. 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.

A bit about Sylwia’s work

The most personal series Lethe comes out of an experience of grief and a lifelong appreciation for a tactile nature of paper. Combining these two influences the series of photographic collages reaches into a lifelong library of artist’s own personal images and for the first time in Sylwia’s work includes references to landscape of her native Poland and of a current homeland of Scotland. As ancient mythology and Surrealism remain two biggest influences in Sylwia’s work the series continues in Metamorphoses where images straight from Ovid’s poetry merge with human and animal in a multidimensional collection of collages, leaning from photography more and more towards sculpture and installation.

In 2006 Sylwia suffered from a detached retina and was at risk of losing her eyesight entirely. A subsequent operation saved her sight, but introduced permanent physical deformities into the way that she sees the world – the retina – and her vision - was permanently distorted. The brain is remarkably adaptable at compensating and filtering out defects. But the fear of loss of eyesight and experience of distortion led to Nightwatching, which uses analogue trompes-l’oeils (ie. avoiding digital jiggery-pokery) to look at identity, fear, illusion and distortion.

Much of Sylwia’s work, and especially Temporal Portraits, references classical painting, and the way in which anonymity or, on the contrary, recognition may affect the way we perceive the subject in an image. Our society today is obsessed with celebrity culture and tends to dismiss photographs of unknown people as unworthy of attention. In classical painting we accept masterpieces despite the fact that we have little idea of the identity of the sitter.

AWARDS

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

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

2002 Transphotographiques Festival, Hotel de Ville, Lille

PUBLICATIONS

2019 ‘209 Women’ Bluecoat Press 2019

2019 SSHOP Magazine (Scottish Society for the History of Photography) Summer 2019 issue - a cover and 6 pages interview by Alexander Hamilton, UK

2017 LM Magazine - November issue 2017, France/Belgium - interview by Nicolas Pattou

2015 Nightwatching, Monthly Photography Vol. 565 - February issue, 8 pages, South Korea

2012 The Decisive Moment. New Phenomena in Polish Photography Since 2000, by Adam Mazur, Karakter, Poland (in Polish and English)

2012 Portraits - objectivisation or surrealisation - exhibition catalogue with text by Krzysztof Jurecki, Wozownia Art Gallery, Torun, Poland

2012 Netherworld magazine, November edition, www.netherworld.com

2011 Fotografia quarterly, Poland No.32/2011

2010 reGeneration2 – Tomorrow’s Photographer’s Today, Thames and Hudson

2007 'Chicas' catalogue text by Krzysztof Jurecki, Wozownia Art Gallery, Torun

2007 ‘EcoUrbanisme’ catalogue, The French Institute, Edinburgh

2006 Fotografia nr 20/2006, 'Chicas', text by Krzysztof Jurecki

2003 3rd Biennale of Polish Contemporary Photography, catalogue, Arsenal Gallery, Poznan

2002 Miesiac Fotografie, general catalogue, publisher: Fotofo Foundation, Bratislava

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 Olmpics ‘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