Katarzyna Perlak is a Polish born artist, based in London whose
practice employs video, performance, textiles, sculpture and installation.
Perlak’s work examines potentiality of affect as a tool for registering and
archiving both present continuous and past historical moments.
Through her work Perlak employs a notion of ‘tender crafts’, exploring how crafts (heritage and traditions) can be revisited and re-imagined from contemporary feminist, queer and diasporic (migrant) perspectives. She engages 'affective truths' such as myths, tales, dreams, desires, collective memories, and seek to problematise how history is written and traditions are represented.
Perlak background is in Philosophy, which she studied in Poland and Fine Art Media that she has studied in UK (Camberwell College of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art). Her work has been aquired by Arts Council Collection, she was part of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017, and shows in the UK and internationally, including: Whitechapel Gallery (London), V&A Musuem (London), Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennial (Venice) , BALTIC (Newcastle), Leslie – Lohman Museum of Arts (NYC), The One Archive (LA), Brent Biennial London, B3 Biennial of Moving Image (Frankfurt) and 2019 Detroit Art Week (USA).
Through her work Perlak employs a notion of ‘tender crafts’, exploring how crafts (heritage and traditions) can be revisited and re-imagined from contemporary feminist, queer and diasporic (migrant) perspectives. She engages 'affective truths' such as myths, tales, dreams, desires, collective memories, and seek to problematise how history is written and traditions are represented.
Perlak background is in Philosophy, which she studied in Poland and Fine Art Media that she has studied in UK (Camberwell College of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art). Her work has been aquired by Arts Council Collection, she was part of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017, and shows in the UK and internationally, including: Whitechapel Gallery (London), V&A Musuem (London), Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennial (Venice) , BALTIC (Newcastle), Leslie – Lohman Museum of Arts (NYC), The One Archive (LA), Brent Biennial London, B3 Biennial of Moving Image (Frankfurt) and 2019 Detroit Art Week (USA).
CURRENT / UPCOMING
Embracing Flux II, Czech Centre Gallery, NYC, USA
13th Feb - 1st May 2025 *group show
Better a bare foot than none, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland
6th March - 4th May *solo show
Liverpool Biennial BEDROCK, Liverpool, UK
7th June - 14th Sept 2025 *biennial
Artist in Residence, Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom, Poland
July - August 2025 *residency
13th Feb - 1st May 2025 *group show
Better a bare foot than none, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Ireland
6th March - 4th May *solo show
Liverpool Biennial BEDROCK, Liverpool, UK
7th June - 14th Sept 2025 *biennial
Artist in Residence, Kronika Centre for Contemporary Art, Bytom, Poland
July - August 2025 *residency
Killer heels and dancehall queens: Brent biennial brings queer cheer to a brutal city by Hattie Judah - The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN - Survey II review – ‘like a David Lynch riff on my grandma’s lounge’, by Hannah Clugston
THE CALVERT JOURNAL — How one artist is making space for queer love — by celebrating heartbreak, by Anastasiia Fedorova
FORBES — Warped Disney Fantasy, Polish Lesbian Wedding, Boston’s Gentrification, Regional Queer History, And More, Occupy Hotel Rooms In Radical Curatorial Installations, by Natasha Gural
ARTNET — As Detroit’s Reputation for Emerging Art Grows, a Wildly Ambitious Citywide Festival Shows a New Generation of Artists on the Rise, by Terence Trouillot
HYPEBEAST — How Emerging Initiatives Are Highlighting Detroit’s Evolving Arts Scene, by Nia Groce
THE CALVERT JOURNAL — Katarzyna Perlak: The artist reclaiming queer tradition for Poland (Samuel Goff)
THE GUARDIAN - Survey II review – ‘like a David Lynch riff on my grandma’s lounge’, by Hannah Clugston
THE CALVERT JOURNAL — How one artist is making space for queer love — by celebrating heartbreak, by Anastasiia Fedorova
FORBES — Warped Disney Fantasy, Polish Lesbian Wedding, Boston’s Gentrification, Regional Queer History, And More, Occupy Hotel Rooms In Radical Curatorial Installations, by Natasha Gural
ARTNET — As Detroit’s Reputation for Emerging Art Grows, a Wildly Ambitious Citywide Festival Shows a New Generation of Artists on the Rise, by Terence Trouillot
HYPEBEAST — How Emerging Initiatives Are Highlighting Detroit’s Evolving Arts Scene, by Nia Groce
THE CALVERT JOURNAL — Katarzyna Perlak: The artist reclaiming queer tradition for Poland (Samuel Goff)
INTERVIEWS
Fetch Magazine - interview with Katarzyna Perlak: “Art Allows You to Move Forward”. By Nastia Svarevska
Staram się przedstawić w kulturze to, co już w niej jest_było, tylko nieopowiedziane. Rozmowa z Katarzyną Perlak
‘ARTS TERRITORY — Queer as Agency in Contemporary Art’ – Denis Maksimov in conversation with Katarzyna Perlak
CONTEMPORARY LYNX — There is no shame in being Eastern European. Roma Piotrowska in discussion with Katarzyna Perlak
The New Contemporaries vlog (Video)
The New Flesh in conversation with…Katarzyna Perlak (Video)
Staram się przedstawić w kulturze to, co już w niej jest_było, tylko nieopowiedziane. Rozmowa z Katarzyną Perlak
‘ARTS TERRITORY — Queer as Agency in Contemporary Art’ – Denis Maksimov in conversation with Katarzyna Perlak
CONTEMPORARY LYNX — There is no shame in being Eastern European. Roma Piotrowska in discussion with Katarzyna Perlak
The New Contemporaries vlog (Video)
The New Flesh in conversation with…Katarzyna Perlak (Video)
NEWSLETTER
COLOPHON
Texts and images by Katarzyna Perlak. Site by Yvon Langué. Copyright © 2021 Katarzyna Perlak.