Monika Sosnowska
Monika Sosnowska
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BiographyShare
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Born 1972 in Ryki, Poland
Lives and works in Warsaw, Poland
Monika Sosnowska is a sculptor best known for her large, site-specific architectural installations created by appropriating and manipulating construction materials such as steel beams, concrete, rods and pipes. She creates impactful and elegant sculptures with playful elements that challenge the perception of the viewer. Sosnowska can be regarded not only as a sculptor but also as a designer of space, as her architectonic sculptures are designed and realised for specific sites and occasions. This specificity and impermanence are integral to her work.
Sosnowska is also interested in the interplay of architectural and mental space and the experience of spatial sensations, exploring this in a formally minimalist and conceptual sculptural language. Through this, she makes reference to and comments on modernism and its utopian ideals, specifically its architectural implementation and effect in her native Poland and surrounding Eastern European countries. She distorts and reassembles architectural materials, divorcing them from their former functionality to contradict the rational paradigm of modernism, and to create as a result beautiful visual puzzles and optical illusions.
Sosnowska has shown extensively over the last two decades, with major solo exhibitions at EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finnland (2024), Zentrum Paul Klee, Berlin (2023); Kunstraum Dornbirn (2022); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2020); Saarlandmuseum Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken (2020); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2020); The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2019); Muzeum Susch, Engadin, Switzerland (2017); Ginza Maison Hermès, Tokyo (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (2015); Australian Center for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne (2013); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2011); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv (2010); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006). Her group exhibitions include Hayward Gallery, London (2018); Tate Modern, London (2017); Sprengel Museum Hannover (2015); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, (2014); The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2012); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010) and many more. In 2007, Sosnowska represented Poland at the 52nd Venice Biennial.
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Artworks
Monika Sosnowska
Handle, 2020Aluminium, steel and wire
Handle: 13 x 13.5 x 2.5 cm
5.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
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Artworks
Monika Sosnowska
Handrail, 2016/2021Painted steel, PVC
451 x 1000 x 20 cm
177.6 x 393.7 x 7.8 inches
Dimensions variable, site specific installation -
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Works
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Monika SosnowskaUntitled (Squeezed Market Stand), 2023Steel, paint130 x 360 x 300 cm
51.2 x 141.7 x 118.1 inches -
Monika SosnowskaGate 2, 2014Steel, lacquer480 x 110 x 185 cm
189 x 43,3 x 72,8 inches -
Monika SosnowskaGate 4, 2014Steel, lacquer545 x 70 x 50 cm
214.5 x 27.5 x 19.6 inches -
Monika SosnowskaGate, 2019Painted steel200 x 100 x 30 cm
78.8 x 39.4 x 11.8 inches -
Monika SosnowskaStairway, 2010Metal, PVC handrail565 x 250 cm
222.4 x 98.4 inches -
Monika SosnowskaStairs, 2018Steel, concrete, lacquer281 x 125 x 118 cm
110.6 x 49.2 x 46.5 inches -
Monika SosnowskaHandrail, 2016/2021Painted steel, PVC451 x 1000 x 20 cm
177.6 x 393.7 x 7.8 inches
Dimensions variable, site specific installation -
Monika SosnowskaThe Handrail, 2009Steel, undercoat paint and pvc374 x 17.5 x 128 cm / 147.24 x 6.88 x 50.39 inches
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Monika SosnowskaRubble, 2018Concrete, steel, lacquer165 x 148,5 x 10 cm
64.9 x 58.4 x 3.9 inches -
Monika SosnowskaPot, 2018Concrete, steel, lacquer113 x 50 x 48 cm
44.4 x 19.7 x 18.9 inches -
Monika SosnowskaPot, 2018Concrete, steel, lacquer114.5 x 146 x 92 cm
45.1 x 57.5 x 36.2 inches -
Monika SosnowskaUntitled, 2017Steel and lacquer230 x 170 x 170 cm
90.6 x 66.9 x 66.9 inches
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Monika SosnowskaUntitled (from the series Market), 2013Steel, lacquer165 x 255 x 144 cm
64.96 x 100.39 x 56.69 inches -
Monika SosnowskaHandle, 2020Aluminium, steel and wireHandle: 13 x 13.5 x 2.5 cm
5.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
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News
Monika Sosnowska
Saarlandmuseum – Moderne Galerie, Saarbrücken
March 15, 2025 – April 12, 2026 15 March 2025From March 15, 2025, the internationally renowned sculptor Monika Sosnowska (*1972) will present several monumental sculptures made of painted steel in the central atrium space...Read moreMonika Sosnowska
'PURPLE PATH' (Group Show), Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025 1 January 2025The PURPLE PATH art and sculpture trail will showcase works by renowned international, national and Saxon artists. The result is an exhibition in public space...Read moreMonika Sosnowska
'Save Land. United for Land' (Group Show), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
December 6, 2024 – June 1, 2025 6 December 2024Our soils take hundreds of years to form. But one extreme event is enough to destroy them in a matter of minutes. Every year, 100...Read more
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Exhibitions
25 for 2025
11 January — 15 February 2025ExploreSweet Sixteen
Celebrating 16 years of Capitain Petzel7 June — 3 August 2024On the occasion of Capitain Petzel’s sixteenth anniversary, the gallery is excited to present Sweet Sixteen, a group exhibition celebrating the artists who have been integral to its program since...ExploreShowcase: Monika Sosnowska
17 April — 12 June 2021Capitain Petzel is pleased to present its second Showcase, a new series of exhibitions which will be visible from outside of the gallery. Monika Sosnowska (b. 1972 in Ryki, Poland)...ExploreInfinite Games... 2
Jadé Fadojutimi, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Stefanie Heinze, Jacqueline Humphries, Rodney McMillian, Sarah Morris, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, Amy Sillman, Monika Sosnowska, Wim Wenders26 February — 17 April 2021Capitain Petzel is pleased to present the second iteration of Infinite Games , extending the concept of the group show initiated at the gallery late last year, which reflected on...ExploreMonika Sosnowska
18 January — 23 February 2019Capitain Petzel is pleased to announce the third solo show by Warsaw-based artist Monika Sosnowska at the Berlin gallery. The exhibition presents three sculptures entitled Gate, originally conceived in 2014...ExploreMonika Sosnowska
Stairway15 March — 17 April 2014Capitain Petzel is pleased to present the second solo exhibition by Monika Sosnowska. The Warsaw-based artist shows the major installation “Stairway“, (2010). In an irregular serpentine shape the work is...ExploreKunst im Heim
COSIMA VON BONIN, MATTHEW BRANNON, TROY BRAUNTUCH, MARIA BRUNNER, GÜNTHER FÖRG, ANNA GASKELL, WADE GUYTON, MARGARETE JAKSCHIK, MARTIN KIPPENBERGER, MARIA LASSNIG, ZOE LEONARD, JOYCE PENSATO, ASCAN PINCKERNELLE, SETH PRICE, STEPHEN PRINA, SAM SAMORE and ma31 October — 17 December 2008Gisela Capitain and Friedrich Petzel are delighted to announce the inaugural exhibition of Capitain Petzel Berlin at Karl-Marx-Allee 45, a groupshow entitled ‚Kunst im Heim‘. From 1961 to 1964 seven...Explore
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External Exhibitions
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Press
Artline: "Monika Sosnowska, Models Aus den Ruinen Warschaus"
19 July 2023Vernissage TV: "Monika Sosnowska / Zentrum Paul Klee"
Heinrich Schmidt, Vernissage Tv, 4 June 2023PARNASS: "Monika Sosnowska"
Edith Schlocker, 29 September 2022The Moscow Times: "Monika Sosnowska Shares 'Exercises in Construction, Bending'"
3 March 2021
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Publications
Monika Sosnowska
Models, VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2024 2024Softcover , 132 pagesRead more
Publisher: VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst
ISBN: 978-3-99153-018-3
Dimensions: 29 x 23 cmMonika Sosnowska
Fatigue, VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2022 2022Hardcover, 63 pagesRead more
Publisher: VfmK Verlag für moderne Kunst GmbH
ISBN: 978-3-903439-63-4
Dimensions: 34 x 24 cmMonika Sosnowska
Architectonisation, Fundacao Serralves / Edicoes Asa, Porto, 2015 2015Softcover, 100 pagesRead more
Publisher: Fundacao Serralves / Edicoes Asa
ISBN: 9727393187
Dimensions: 26 x 21 cm
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