Joanna Piotrowska

The Weitzman Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and the Institute of Contemporary Art are pleased to present an artist lecture and artist presentation with Joanna Piotrowska whose work examines the human condition through performative acts, photography, and film. 

This free public lecture is part of a series that gathers distinguished artists, activists, writers, and disruptors whose work engages with the social and cultural themes of our time.

Joanna Piotrowska (b. 1985) is a Polish artist based in London. She examines the human condition through performative acts and the construction of multiple ‘social landscapes’ using photography, performance and film. Family archives, self-defence manuals and psychotherapeutic methods are used as reference points as Piotrowska explores the complex roles which play out in everyday performance. Her psychologically charged photographs probe human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere.

Her work has been exhibited at: ICA Philadelphia (2024), National Museum of Oslo (2023), Le Bal, Paris (2023), FRAC Île-de-France, Paris (2023), Kunsthalle Tübingen (2023), 59th Venice Biennale (2022), The 16th Lyon Biennale (2022) Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (2022), MACRO, Rome, Italy (2020), Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw (2020), Tate Britain (2019), Kunsthalle Basel (2019), NS-Dokumentationszentrum München (2019), MoMA, New York (2018), Kunsthalle Wien (2018), 10th Berlin Biennale (2018), ICA Singapore (2017), Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan (2016), Hayward Gallery, London (2014), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2013). Joanna Piotrowska is a receipient of The Camera Austria Award for Contemporary Photography by the City of Graz, 2023. 

About the Series

The Institute of Contemporary Art, the Weitzman Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania are pleased to present a series of free public lectures and artist presentations that connect a group of distinguished artists, writers, activists, and disruptors to the Philadelphia public.

In their varied approaches and techniques, these individuals speak to ICA’s ethos of artistic experimentation and practice that engages with the social and cultural themes of our time. As artists, writers, and cultural producers, their artwork and criticism expand across themes of popular culture, queer life, kinship & community, and de/construction through the utilization of sculpture, performance, sound, collage, installation, and more.

In this lecture series, we invite you all to engage in conversation with our participants and become a part of an active dialogue that explores the stake of contemporary art in our society and culture.