Katarzyna Kozyra by Karol Sienkiewicz, March 2016
Katarzyna Kozyra below Katarzyna Kozyra, by Karol Sienkiewicz, courtesy of Zacheta National Gallery March 2016 Katarzyna Kozyra is a Polish sculptor, installation and video artist who rose to prominence in the 1990s as a leading figure of the ‘critical art’ movement in Poland, creating works that confront social taboos (such as death, disease and nakedness), usually related to issues of the sick, old or marginalised. Katarzyna Kozyra was born on February 1, 1963, in Warsaw. She studied German at the University of Warsaw from 1985 to 1988, then sculpture at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts. In 1993 she completed her studies in Professor Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio, known as the «Kowalnia», and befriended Jerzy Stajuda, her drawing professor. After her studies she abandoned sculpture in favour of photography, video installations and performance art. In 1997 she was awarded the Passport of the weekly «Polityka» as the most promising artist in Poland, and she won an honourable mention while representing Poland at the 48th Venice Biennial in 1999. She lives and works in Berlin and Warsaw. Controversial thesis project Ever since Kozyra’s Animal Pyramid, 1993) – her format photographs entitled Blood Ties, depicting thesis project – gained notoriety in the media, she nude female figures against a background of has been known as the most scandalous artist in religious symbols – the cross and the half moon. Poland. Inspired by the «Travelling Musicians» of The piece was censored at the time, but two of the the Brothers Grimm, she created a sculpture out photographs were later reproduced on a billboard of four dead stuffed animals standing one upon as part of the AMS Gallery project in 1999.
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