Bio
Karolina Grzywnowicz is a visual artist whose work stands at the intersection of contemporary art, research and activism. Her works often deal with plants, animals and bodies in social and political context, often of a violent nature. She is interested in the practices of weak resistance, everyday activities, seemingly unnoticed gestures that have the power to resist oppression. Recently, she has been researching the politics of smell, exploring scent as a tool for resistance and healing, and investigating its potential in communication and storytelling.
Photo: Alicja Lesiak
She works in various media: installation, sculpture, video; she creates situations and art interventions. In 2024, she was a CEC ArtsLink Fellow in New York and Chicago, with a solo exhibition at Watershed Art & Ecology, Chicago. She received the Special Prize of the ING Polish Art Foundation at the 2022 Warsaw Gallery Weekend for the project Distillates. She has also been awarded the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage’s scholarship for 2025. Her works have been exhibited at: Akademie der Künste der Welt (Cologne, DE), Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste (Dresden, DE), Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (PL), Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw, PL), Onomatopee Projects (Eindhoven, NL), The Indian Museum (Kolkata, IN) and at the Unsound festival (Krakow, PL). She holds a degree in Comparative Literature. She lives in Berlin and works internationally.
Selected Exhibitions
2025-2026
Motion that Comes Back to the Body, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków (PL)
LOWW Gallery, Tokyo (JP)
2025
IN/SOMNIA The Politics of Rest and Restlessness, Halle für Kunst Lüneburg (DE)
Travelling Plants, Studio Kayamai, Colombo (LK)
2024-2025
Potential Histories, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (PL)
2024
Green Belt, Watershed Art&Ecology, Chicago, IL (US)
Moments, SEFO TRIENNIAL Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc (CZ)
Travelling Plants, The Indian Museum, Kolkata (IN)
2023-2024
Walking through underwater meadows – Anti-textbook. How to build an invisible place?, Kronika Center of Contemporary Art, Bytom (PL)
2022
Distillates – Grounding, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw (PL)
2021
Bedtime – Everyday Forms of Resistance, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (PL)
2020 – 2021
Love Letter to the Earth, Tbilisi Online Biennale, Tbilisi (GE)
Something in Common, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (PL)
2020
The Camel Never Forgets, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, lokal_30, Warsaw (PL)
2019
Second Nature, HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden (DE)
Deep Listening, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice (PL)
2018
Floraphilia. Plants as Archive, Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne (DE)
Trouble with Value, Onomatopee Projects, Eindhoven (NL)
Inter-species Conservation, Fotofestiwal, Fabryka Sztuki, Łódź (PL)
2017
Still Life installation in public space, Unsound, Kraków (PL)
Solstices, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice (PL)
2016
Weeds– installation in public space, Bęc Zmiana Foundation, Powiśle, Warszawa (PL)
Resilience. Secret Life of Plants, Animals and Other Species, Office for Cultural Translations, Leipzig (DE)
Grün | Zielony – participatory project, WRO Art Center, Wrocław (PL)
2015
Weeds, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (PL)
Weeds – Magic Mountain, BWA “Sokół” Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy Sącz (PL)
Talks and Performaces
2025
Artis talk / Open Studio, Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), Tokyo (JP)
Artis talk, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (PL)
2024
Voices, Rhythms, Rituals, Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Venice (IT)
Artist talk, Watershed Art & Ecology, Chicago (US)
Olfactory Art Class – School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2023
Art intervention, Botanical Garden, IMPULS Festival, Leipzig (DE)
Workshop and art intervention, State Hospital for Mental Diseases, Rybnik (PL)
Distillates, pop-up olfactory installation and artist talk, Floating University, Berlin (DE)
Artist talk, Sankt Hansine, Vi Lever På Polsk, Copenhagen (DK)
2022
Transmitters of Memory, Jednostka Gallery, Warsaw
2021
Feminist Surveillance Art, Yale University, New Haven, CT (US)
Horizons, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
Singing about the dark times, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
2020
Every song knows its home, Insomnia Festival, Tromsø (NO)
2019
Biopolis art intervention and counterfactual guided tour in Botanical Garden, Kraków
Second Nature – Festival STS: Temporary Autonomous Zones, Studio Theatre, Warsaw
Second Nature – Tour: Bucharest (RO), Chisinau (MD), Žilina (SK), Plovdiv (BG), Prague (CZ)
2018
Weeds – Winterfest, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
2017
Heap – site specific intervention, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice (PL)
Grün | Zielony artist talk Architecture Museum, Wrocław (PL)
Europe’s Last Primeval Forest, Unsound Festival, Kraków
2016
Artist talk, WRO Art Center, Wrocław
2015
Artist talk, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warszawa
2014
Voids. A walk – site specific intervention, Terka, Studenne
Artistic and scientific conference Disappearing, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Kraków
Artist talk, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków
Awards and Art Residencies
2025
Tokyo Arts and Space
2024
CEC Artslink International Fellowship, New York, Chicago (US)
Art Quarter Budapest (HU)
Goethe Institut Chennai/French Institute of Pondicherry (IN)
2022
Special Prize, Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Warsaw (PL)
2020, 2021
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
2019
Botanical Garden, Kraków (PL)
Mamarat, Ramallah (PS)
HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Dresden (DE)
2018
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE)
Sholarships and Grants
2025
Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (PL)
Berlin Senate (DE)
2024
Visegrad Fund (HU)
Goethe Institut (DE)
2023
Berlin Senate, Weltoffenes Berlin Program (DE)
Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn (DE)
2021
The Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation (DE)
2020
Art Station Foundation, Susch (CH)
2019
Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (DE)