Mikołaj Sobczak

Mikołaj Sobczak (born 1989) is a Polish artist. His artwork mixes painting, video, and performance art. In addition to portraying alternate historical visions, Sobczak's artwork combines daily life with surreal collaged visual narratives in which he incorporates characters from countercultural emancipatory movements and LGBTQIA+ activism. Sobczak lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Career Sobczak graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the Studio of Spatial Activities, later obtained a scholarship at Berlin University of the Arts, and studied as well at Kunstakademie Münster. Sobczak's work have been in public collections such as Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf), Ludwig Forum (Aachen), and The Perimeter (London).

Residences

2022 Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Sobczak also frequently collaborates with Nicholas Grafia, a Filipino-born German artist. Sobczak's works often focus on topics such as emancipation, freedom, and marginalization, which he tackles through fictional narratives and mythic creatures, revealing the larger political problem on a worldwide scale. He predominantly examines the representation of historical events and raises questions regarding the formation of identities and cultures amidst the canonization of history by threading in fictional narratives such as sagas and myths. He also drew inspiration from the life of Polish writer Eva Kotchever, who was murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War.

Select exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2018 The Doomed Ones, in the frames of The Department of Presence, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland 2021 Metamorphoses, Polana Institute, Warsaw, Poland 2022 Leibeigene, Kunsthalle Münster, Germany 2023 Heretics Forever, Galerie Max Mayer, Düsseldorf, Germany 2024 Impossible Songs, Jester, Genk, Belgium 2026 Teilen und Herrschen, Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf 2024 Le Boudoir de l'Amour, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, Germany 2024 Impossible Songs, Jester, Flanders Arts Institute, Genk, Belgium 2026 Teilen und Herrschen, Polnisches Institut Düsseldorf

Group exhibitions

2015 Squeez me, Satellite Space, Santa Monica, CA 2016 Wie traurig war das Shooting, Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen, Germany 2017 Akademie [Arbeitstitel], Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany 2018 Artists' Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2019 New Kingdom, Polana Institute, Warsaw, Poland 2020 Warsaw Under Construction: Something Common, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland 2021 lliberal Arts. Institutions, Humiliation, Rituals, Perceptibilities, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany 2022 Weak.End.Opera, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland 2023 Illiberal Lives, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany 2024 Lines, Lives and Lies, On The Inside, Amsterdam, Netherlands