Weronika Gesicka

Born in 1984 in Włocławek (Poland). A visual artist focused on photography, who also creates objects and artefacts. Her projects explore topics related to memory and the underlying mechanisms. She is also interested in the cultural phenomena that impact contemporary reality and can be exploited for manipulating it. Her art addresses issues linked to interpersonal relationships, growing up and family and social roles assumed by people. She eagerly works with archival materials, including images found accidentally on the internet, but also those from stock photo libraries, police archives, and the press.

She graduated from the Graphics Faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts and completed her studies at Akademia Fotografii in Warsaw.

A winner of Polityka Passport (Paszport Polityki) 2019 Award for Visual Arts category (2020), EMOP Arendt Award (2019), Foam Talent (2017), Spotlight Award (2017, Belfast Photo Festival) and LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards (2016). A finalist of Prix HSBC pour la Photographie (2017), Prix Levallois (2016) and the ShowOFF section of the Cracow Photomonth Festival (2016). She received a grant from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in 2008.

Her works have appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, Internazionale, Spiegel Online, Le Monde and many other magazines.

Weronika Gęsicka’s works have been exhibited worldwide including Dom Museum, Vienna, Austria; La Chambre, Strasbourg, France; Kyotogpahie, Kyoto, Japan; Polish Institute, Düsseldorf, Germany; Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland; Red Hook Labs, NYC, USA; Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London, UK; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany; Calvert 22 Foundation, London, UK; Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, Poland; Festival Circulations, The Cent Quatre, Paris, France; Photomonth Festival, Cracow, Poland.

Gęsicka’s works can be found in prestigious collections including Dom Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria; Arendt Collection, Luxemburg; MuFo Museum of Photography, Cracow, Poland; Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Germany; National Museum in Wroclaw, Poland.

(Source : JEDNOSTKA Gallery)

The artistic universe of the young Polish artist Weronika Gesicka is based on research and strategies exploring mechanisms relating to memory and family representations from past eras.

Her photography from the archive – a widespread trend among young artists – revisits and deconstructs the various historical sources by introducing derision and monstrosity into the original “good” images. Her visual distortions caustically denounce the quirky popular, propagandist and promotional purposes of these photographs.

(Source : Paul di Felice)