Michal Martychowiec (born in 1987) creates conceptual series of photographs, films, drawings, neons, objects, mixed media installations and environments. He is a visiting lecturer at the Russian Institute of History of Art (Russian Academy of Sciences) in St. Petersburg and the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.
Martychowiec’s oeuvre consists of mixed media practice designed in larger series. It is thus always developed hermeneutically around an expanded topic. A new field of his invention is also recreation of avatars and other personas.
Through this practice, characterized by the diversity of the media used, Martychowiec aims to explore the condition and the possibilities of contemporary human existence. His thinking revolves around history, invention and autopoiesis of historical narratives and thus also exploration and occasionally comical recomposition of cultural symbols and archetypes.
Furthermore, Martychowiec merges artistic and curatorial practices through a twofold arrangement of his oeuvre. At first, he develops projects as individual narratives within a certain field of inquiry. At the same time, these projects inform one another and their elements can be reenacted and incorporated, through a curatorial activity, into later works, where they acquire symbolic qualities.
Martychowiec’s inventions are based primarily on Occidental and Oriental philosophy, anthropology, art and cultural history, universal historical reflections, the history of religion, literature, archeology and, of course, our contemporary culture and communication analysis.
Education
2011
MA Fine Art (Distinction) | Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design | London
2010
Postgraduate Certificate in Photography | Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design | London
2007
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design | London College of Communication
Selected exhibitions
2018
Everything about the contemporary is panda | Rodríguez Gallery | Warsaw (solo)
Journey to the West | Signum Foundation Gallery | Lodz (solo)
Tears of Iblis | Signum Foundation Gallery | Lodz (solo)
What remains the poets provide | Signum Foundation Gallery | Lodz (solo)
Reading history | Signum Foundation Gallery | Lodz (solo)
Tears of Iblis | Migrant Bird Space | Beijing (solo)
Do you believe in art? | MMS2 | Berlin (solo)
What do you desire? | Linde Contemporary Art | Qingdao (solo)
Where does your heart belong? | Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst | Bremen
Cabinet of True Horizons (How far can you see?) | Rodríguez Gallery | Poznan
On longing and consolation | Kunstenfestival Watou | Watou
Big Workout: AMNUA International Project III | Art Museum of NUA | Nanjing
What we talk about when we talk about Residence | Taifun | Neuss
3 | MMS3 | Chengdu
2017
What remains the poets provide | Art Museum of NUA | Nanjing (solo)
Sous les pavés, la plage! | De Sarthe Gallery | Beijing (solo)
The urge to create visions 1929-2017 | Centre of Polish Sculpture | Oronsko
Neon revolution | Videoinsight Center | Turin
Image Dream Awakening | MMS2 | Berlin
2016
Engel mit Sphinx Gesichten | MMS2 | Berlin (solo)
Line | gif_lab Garage | Tokyo (solo)
Everything about the contemporary is panda | TAGSTA Gallery | Fukuoka (solo)
Magic of the square | National Gallery of Art | Sopot
Illegibility. The contexts of script | Art Stations Foundation | Poznan
the beginning the end | MMS2 | Berlin
Illegibility. Palimpsests | Pan Tadeusz Museum | Wroclaw
Pure white | Galerie Tore Suessbier | Berlin
2015
All is history | Dzialdov | Berlin (solo)
Spacetime | 9th Biennial of Photography | Zamek Culture Centre | Poznan
Utopia – Preterites of Contemporaneity | Memorial Getúlio Vargas | Trio Biennial | Rio de Janeiro
Pré-Pénétrables | Signum Foundation Gallery | Lodz
Le gallerie veneziane e la fotografia | Casa dei Tre Oci | Venice
2014
I want to be a futurist | Videoinsight Center | Turin
When Empty Self Becomes Form | ts art projects | Berlin
Art for care: 11 video steps for your wellness – Format A/B | Videoinsight Center | Turin
2013
Vanito Vanitas | Genshagen Stiftung | Genshagen (solo)
La Chambre de Labastrie | galleria upp | Venice (solo)
In memory | Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle | Warsaw (solo)
In memory | site-specific installation at KO-SO-YU | Yamashiro Onsen, Kaga, Japan (solo)
Pavilion 0 | Palazzo Doná | Venice
2012
FUTURE, LANDSCAPE. A changing exhibition. II Fase | Forte Marghera – Parco del Contemporaneo | Venice
2011
Blue Red Green | gift_lab | Tokyo (solo)
Nel mezzo del cammin | galleria upp | Venice (solo)
Stone in water | site-specific installation at Palazzo Rizzo Patarol | Boscolo Hotel | Venice (solo)
Destination | galleria upp | Venice (solo)
2010
Awake and Dream. Documentation /photographs and films/ | Patio Art Centre Lodz | 2nd Art & Documentation Festival (solo)
A theory of vision: A review | Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle | Warsaw
2009
Awake and Dream. Documentation /photographs and films/ | Palazzo Doná Signum Foundation | Venice (solo)
Awake and Dream | Palazzo Doná Signum Foundation | Venice
Works in collections
Signum Foundation | Venice/Poznan
Galerie Denise René| Paris
Cruz-Diez Foundation | Houston, Texas
British Artists’ Film & Video Study Collection | London
Videoinsight Foundation | Turin
Collection GM | Lodz
Bank PEKAO SA | Warsaw
Siena Art Institute | Siena
Selected books
Paradigm Volume I – Genesis | Paradigm Publishing | Philadelphia 2014
Nel mezzo del cammin | Michal Martychowiec | galleria upp | Venice 2011
Awake and Dream. Documentation /photographs and films/ | Michal Martychowiec | Signum Foundation | Venice 2009