Piotrek Kowalski
@fordpolio
turnusowa fotka
Kowalski creates sculptures using either materials found at scrap yards and recycled in his studio or he constructs them from scratches of building materials. They reimagine objects from the intersection of city and nature, studying the influence of infrastructure on human behavior, such as jungle gyms, clocks, benches, tables, or signposts. In his works, post-construction elements provide sculptural material and a starting point for reflecting on the place of a man in late capitalism.
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Piotrek Kowalski
new document, 2024
painted steel
85 × 70 × 50 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
soil sections, 2024
floral foam, plastic, clay, measuring cup
50 × 32 × 46 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
L (silos), 2023-2024
plastic, floral sponge, molding sand, wood
163 × 150 × 87 cm
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Order of magnitude, exhibition views, 2024
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Take an apple or tomato on the road, let it grow by an order of magnitude. The meridians and parallels are swelling. The trajectory of a fruit fly's movement could be tracked by flightradar, if there was a point to it. Let's take a clock and move its flat dial into the third dimension. Time is now running down hard like asphalt melted by the sun. One day is one ping-pong ball, a year could be enclosed in a packet. Now take any slice of the city and remove everything that distinguishes it from any other arbitrary slice of the city. It's even possible to do this with some landmark, such as Gdansk Station.

All that will be left are the coffers, the leaflet stands, the change trays, the waste from the decommissioning of some kiosk spilling out of the gruzbag. Let's call it a small infrastructure altogether. This is the kind of raw material Piotrek Kowalski works with. Sometimes he tinkers with scale, sometimes he subtracts or adds one dimension to objects or phenomena. Basically, however, he stays with the concrete, the rack upholding the suggestion of the original function.

The primary function of this small infrastructure is to organize reality. Or more specifically: to organize space in such a way as to allow the circulation of products and air, information and transactions. The task the artist-logist sets himself is to catch these flows with a sculptural grasp that gives them material form. He catches where it rasps, pulls the glitch into a database along with dust and lost coins, and sees what he gets out of it.

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Piotrek Kowalski
trajectory of a ball, 2024
steel, black sand
145 × 300 × 30 cm
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Turnus with Ant Łakomsk and Piotrek Kowalski at Paris Internationale 2024
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Kowalski creates sculptures that look almost like pieces from a science exhibition. He combines post-construction elements with carefully crafted elements looking like they were found on the street (but they are actually made from scratch) to study the intersection of city and nature and the influence of infrastructure on human behavior.
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Piotrek Kowalski
parking post 1, 2024
steel, cement, clay, wood
188 × 50 × 50 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
parking post 2, 2024
steel, cement, padlocks
220 × 100 × 60 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
bird's eye view of the parking lot, 2024
steel, black sand
195 × 45 × 65 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
datum, 2023
steel, self-adhesive foil, anti-stress balls, polyester resin, silicone
71 × 76 × 45 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
hoarders (archive), 2023
plastic, steel, banners, cellular polycarbonate, concrete, glass microspheres, polyester resin polyester resin, magnets, clay, self-adhesive foil
100×80×18 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
8, 2024
steel, floral foam, carpet edging
40 × 15 × 22 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
bowlinghead, 2024
concrete, plastic, rubber bands, paperclips
55 × 27 × 27 cm
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Piotrek Kowalski
untitled iii, 2023
steel, oil paint, cement, clay, plastic
90 × 20 × 15 cm

In front of the shop there is an extensive car park. Along its edge, a metal pole and a concrete sphere are installed alternately. Together, these structures organise the space, yet maintain a distance from each other. Starting from these figures, I decide to build a symbolic family of products and stage their display.

(quote from Panorama 8's exhibition text)

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Groundworks' exhibition views, 2021
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Groundworks' exhibition views, 2021
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Gridnet&tp, Master's diploma exhibition view
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Gridnet&tp, Master's diploma exhibition view
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
Upcoming | {Project Room} 2025/2026
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
2024
Order of magnitude
Dworzec Gdański, Warsaw, PL
2023
Erzac Cornerstone, Ciach
Warsaw, PL
2022
Gridnet&tp, Masters diploma
Cukry Praga, Warsaw, PL
2021
Panorama 8
Fundacja Rodziny Staraków, Warsaw, PL
Groundworks
Widok 22/8, Warsaw, PL
2019
Walking nature
Galeria Kaplica, Warsaw, PL
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Home Staging
FRINGE 2025, Warsaw, PL
thank you for recording
Turnus Gallery, Warsaw, PL
Looks like life
Szaber Gallery, Kraków, PL
Prośby na niby
Art Walk Gallery, Warsaw, PL
2024
NARRACJE #15: Niedźwiednik 2024
Gdańsk, PL
Tabula Rasa
Legnica, PL
Amateur artists and collectors
The Wola Museum of Warsaw, Warsaw, PL
Accidentally on purpose
Turnus Gallery, Warsaw, PL
Benefis Atrium: Live Fast, Die Young
The National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, Warsaw, PL
First indication
Turnus Gallery, Warsaw, PL
2022
Brought to you by
ART.Reiche, Berlin, DE
Vynos
Pracownia Wschodnia, Warsaw, PL
Robi się gorąco
Galeria Officyna, Warsaw, PL
2021
Widokówka
Widok 22/8, Warsaw, PL
Jeszcze jeden turnus Krzywego Koła
Warsaw, PL
Wasz (tu wpisz odpowiednią nazwę) czas się skończył
Przyszła Niedoszła, Warsaw, PL
2020
Sandra in the grass
Zachęta–National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
Rajski student śpi z człowiekiem w grobie
Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, PL
2019
Hexen Tabor Gore
Miejski Ośrodek Sztuki, Gorzów Wielkopolski, PL
Piasek jest w porządku, a ziemia to nic miłego
Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw, PL
EDUCATION
2020-2022
Masters of New Media Arts, Academy of Fine Arts
Warsaw, PL
2017-2020
Bachelor of New Media Arts, Academy of Fine Arts
Warsaw, PL