Małgorzata Markiewicz

Małgorzata Markiewicz (b. 1979 in Kraków) is a visual artist and performer. She studied in the Studio of Media Activities of Professor Antoni Porczak at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (1999-2004, diploma with distinction), supplementing her education at, among others, Konstfack in Stockholm; in 2015 she obtained a doctoral degree. She belonged to the feminist group grzenda.pl. She lives and works in Kraków.

From the beginning of her work Markiewicz has used textile as her medium - as she says, a material that „teaches her humility”. She creates objects, installations, video and photographs, as well as realisations in public space, made from ready-made clothes, fabrics and yarn, often in the spirit of recycling. Sculpting in textile, she traces its feminist threads and refers to the myth of Arachne; she calls herself a „mender” who „darns” the problems of the contemporary world.

At the centre of her practice stands the complexity of contemporary gender dynamics - in the private and public spheres, in professional and family relationships, in the theme of motherhood, sexuality and the position of women in society. The symbolic heroine of her work is the crocheted „Medusa” (2020), referring to Hélène Cixous's essay „The Laugh of the Medusa”. Markiewicz's works have been shown by, among others, the Bunkier Sztuki in Kraków („It's No Longer a Man's World”, 2022) and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; they are in the collections of MOCAK, the Bunkier Sztuki, the Gdańsk City Gallery and other institutions in Poland and abroad.