Artist name: Krzysztof Maniak
Dates of residency: August
Born: 1990
Hometown: Tuchów (Poland)
Lives and works: Tuchów/Cracow
URL: www.krzysztofmaniak.blogspot.com
Education: MFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland (2015); BFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland (2013).
BIO/ STATEMENT:
Krzysztof Maniak works with video, photography, and performance. Maniak portrays the melancholic landscape of the Polish hinterland by relying on small actions. In front of the camera, the artist puts on performances that simulate communication with the wilderness: he presses down grass to create paths in fields, stretches his body to measure distance between tree trunks and becomes part of the geometrical constellations created by twigs and piles of stones. What Krzysztof Maniak does is to reverse the process of colonization by blending in with the landscape.
Selected solo exhibitions include: 30 Seconds of Hanging from a Tree Branch Before It Broke, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery, Katowice, Poland (2015); Scratches’ Gallery Two Left Hands, Katowice (2014); The Stopped, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Słupsk, Poland (2014). Group shows include Hestia Artistic Journey 2015, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland (2015); VideoNews, Gallery Labirynt, Lublin, Poland (2014); Valley of Shadows, Cellar Gallery, Cracow, Poland (2014); Into the Country, Salt Ulus, Ankara, Turkey (2014); As You Can See. Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); 22, dokumentArt European Film Festival from Documentaries, Szczecin/Neubrandenburg, Poland-Germany (2013); Fish Eye 7, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Słupsk, Poland (2013)
In 2014, Maniak was awarded by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage. In 2015, Maniak won the Hestia Artistic Journey contest which allows him to come to Residency Unlimited. He also received the Special Prize at the Biennale of Young Art for his work Fish Eye 7.
SELECT PERMANENT COLLECTIONS:
Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland
Hestia Foundation, Sopot, Poland
SUPPORT:
Krzysztof Maniak’s one-month residency is made possible with support from Hestia Artistic Journey, Poland.
