Paweł Althamer (b. 1967, Warsaw), “Kloszard,” 1995

Provenance
private collection, Poland

Biography
Sculptor, performer, action artist, creator of installations and video works. From 1988 to 1993, he studied at the Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Grzegorz Kowalski, with whom he completed his diploma project. Exhibiting since 1991 alongside his studio colleagues—including Katarzyna Kozyra and Jacek Markiewicz—he helped shape the phenomenon known as the “Kowalski Studio,” also called “Kowalnia,” —one of the leading groups in the young Polish art scene of the 1990s. In 2004, he received the prestigious Vincent van Gogh Prize awarded by the Dutch de Broere Foundation. In 2010, during the “Polityka” Passport Awards gala, the artist received the Special Award for a Cultural Creator. Paweł Althamer has presented his works at numerous solo exhibitions, including at Warsaw’s Zachęta, the Foksal Gallery Foundation, the Centre Pompidou, and the Helsinki Art Museum.