Between 1985-1990 studied Sculpture at Poznan Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2002 has been teaching at Koszalin University of Technology. A sculptor, also works in video, installation, photography, poetry, and curates (for ON Gallery in Poznan among others). Numerous exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In her space arrangements she used an amphora motif several times. In her early artworks she sculpted in plaster combined with metal arranging space. It was an attempt to define herself in space – simple synthetic forms sometimes relating to real objects. In the second half of the 90’s Michowska’s art was dominated by space arranged by man. In recent years she has worked in video and multimedia installations. She states that her thinking of art was shaped by her experience with sculpture, understood not as an object but as a movement of an idea in space and time. This idea of sculpture seems close to the idea of film as an ideal combination of space, time and form being interdependent.
Most important group exhibitions: Presence III, ON Gallery, Poznan (1992); Kubus Gallery, Hannover, Germany (1992); 14 Artists from Poland,
Yad-Labanim Museum, Petah-Tikva, Israel (1992); Presence IV – La Coupole Gallery, Rennes, France (1994); Co-existance. V Construction
in Process, Negev Desert, Israel (1995); Woman about Woman, Bielska BWA Gallery, Bielsko-Biala (1996); March Pairing, Artists’ Museum,
Lodz (1996); The Least Common Denominator, Hey Apollohuis, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (1996); Transfer, X. Dunikowski’s Museum,
Krolikarnia, Warsaw; Wyspa Gallery, Gdansk; Bunker of Arts, Cracow; Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany; Bochum Museum,
Germany; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (1998); Good Morning Tokyo, Sehion Suginara, Tokio (2002); the Lightness of Things, Center for
Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (2003); Time of Culture, Program Gallery, Warsaw (2005); Mentality (Lodz Biennial, 2006).
Most important individual exhibitions: ON Gallery, Poznan (1991); Labirynt Gallery, Lublin (1994); Bielska BWA Gallery, Bielsko-Biała (1998);
Biala Gallery, Lublin (1998); Laboratorium Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, (1999); Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok
(2000); Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko (2001); Schizophrenia, Platan Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (2005); Dead Point Arsenal City Art Gallery,
Poznan (2006); Joshua Dream, Program Gallery, Warsaw (2006); Josephine, The Witches’ Tower, Slupsk (2009).
Agata Michowska has an unusual gift for observing human life. In her art there is a lot of space for good and bad emotions, which the artist
can notice in the most atypical inter-humane relations as well as in the stories she herself invents. This is the kind of problem she touches
in her work ‘Execution’ (2007). Big screen video projection shows feet dressed in blood red shiny high-heeled shoes. The video is managed
by a heavy, slow, sometimes metallic sound of regular steps, reminiscent of a heartbeat. Proportions of a red shiny chair were simplified
and prolonged, proportional to the deadly aim of this semi-real object. Authoritarian shoes seduce the viewers with their unusual flashes
on the surface of the projection similar to the multi-functional polished throne. The artist analyzes the unusual problem of a very shortsighted and intense relation between the victim and the executioner which exists at the moment of execution. Showing a very broad social context
and multiple meanings of execution, the artist examines natural and cultural behaviors of man, suggesting an analysis of desire and the act
of love between man and woman, via the image of shoe fetish.
Excerpts from Agnieszka Okrzeja’s text for Agata Michowska’s show at Art Basel 2008
organized by Program Gallery.
