PROFILE
Fine art and art education specializing in graphics (silkscreen).
Interdisciplinary art practice, involving photography, performance, public photo projects, drawing, mixed media projects, artist’s books, mail art and film.
Participated in independent art movement and interested in experimental, exploratory, connecting and healing aspects of art with no attachment to a specific medium.
In my work I ask questions about the human condition and dilemmas and inquire about inner experiences: the answers engage simple human truths, emotions and feelings. Typically I use a variety of media to explore a central theme. My prominent quality is in intuitive synthesis of the environment.
My artwork has been exhibited in artistic institutions in Europe and the USA such as the TATE Modern London UK, The Kitchen (Center for video, music, dance, performance, film + literature) N.Y.C and the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw.
One of my best known projects The Limits of Human Abilities, incorporated film, photography, drawing, and a book. Author Piotr Rypson has described my work as an “autonomous closed structure, within which a particular problem or artistic theme is being solved”. In 1981 I created a mail art project using photography and stamps titled Woman’s Art. I used mostly photos of myself. Each photo is a performance for photography. The problem of alienation from the body was explored in the context of the more aggressive feminist art of this time. In Rynek (Market Place) I asked an actor to join people sitting on benches in the market-place and to assume a position that mirrored theirs. All these performance-interventions were photo-documented.
“Republika cyników – plac Defilad” (THE CYNICS REPUBLIC – PLAC DEFILAD”) Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej. 10.05–08.06.2025 Warszawa/Warsaw. Poland.
INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS AND SHOWS
2023 Sztuka Kobiet, Twórczość Iwony Lemke Konart (Woman’s Art, works of Iwona Lemke Konart) 23 11 23, Odkrywanie, odzyskanie, przywracanie, wznawianie, Panel dyskusyjny, (Discovering, Reclaiming, Restoring, Resuming, Discussion Panel) Galeria BWA, Bydgoszcz Poland
2019 Woman’s art, Arton Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
2018 Sztuka Kobiet 2.0 multimedia project https://vimeo.com/254964853
1990 Drawings, B.E.S.L. Toronto, Canada
1980-82 Woman’s art, Mail Art project
1989 Limits of Human abilities, Project-Galerie New Space Fulda, Germany.
1985 Intersubjective Investigations, with Tomasz Konart Labirynt 2, Lublin, Poland.
1983 Pro/La manifesto, environment action Pro/La, Warsaw, Poland.
1981 Art of 70-80 Recollection/Anticipation, curator and organizer of art session at S Gallery, Torun, Poland
1981 DS 11, photo project, Torun, Poland.
1982 Works of Iwona Lemke S, Gallery, Torun, Poland.
1979 Hippie Relic, Szczecin, Poland.
1979 Market, photo action at Darlowo79 artist plain-air.
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2025 8. Piotrkowskie Biennale Sztuki (Piotrków Art Biennal). ,,Udowodnij, że nie jesteś robotem” (“Prove you’re not a robot.”) Piotrków Trybunalski. Poland.
2025 “Republika cyników – plac Defilad” (THE CYNICS REPUBLIC – PLAC DEFILAD”) Score by Pierre Bal-Blanc. Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej. 10.05–08.06.2025 Warszawa/Warsaw. Poland.
2024 Ironia (Irony) Galeria Sztuki Wozownia, Toruń, Poland,
2023 Piotrkowskie Biennale Sztuki (Piotrków Art Biennal), STOICKI IMPULS (STOIC IMPULSE), Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
2020 OBERHAUSEN FILM FESTIVAL, Germany
2019 Her Own Way Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Against the Grain Women’s Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles USA
2012 Films from Filmoteka Muzeum ELECTRA, London UK
V I D E O E X – F E S T I V A L 1 2 Zurich, Switzerland
Videoex is Switzerland’s largest festival dedicated to experimental film and video. Over the course of nine days, Videoex shows films and videos beyond conventional narrative cinema: experimental, visually surprising, conceptually unexpected or controversially political films and videos on the threshold between visual art and film
2011 Mother Festival, Berlin, Germany.
2007 1, 2, 3 Avant-gardes, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland.
2006 1, 2, 3 Avant-gardes, German Federal Cultural Foundation, Berlin, Germany.
2004 The Films of Polish Women Artists in the 1970s and 1980s TATE Modern, London, UK. PARAKINO: From Archives of Polish Experimental Film, Centre for Contemporary Art, Łazna Gdansk, Poland.
2003 Videoworks from Poland 1970s and 1980s and Contemporary Video from Poland Atelier Nord Oslo, Norway.
2003 Architecture of Gender: Contemporary Women’s Art in Poland. The Kitchen, Center for Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film + Literature, New York, USA.
2002 The Films of Polish Women Artists in the 1970s and 1980s, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Poland, Woman with Camera in Poland, Wozownia Gallery, Torun, Poland.
1993 International Artist’s Book Exhibition, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.
1992 Pages and Books, Centre For Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland.
1989 Drawing, Centre For Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland.
1988 Young Generation of Polish Constructivism, Pleiades Gallery, Athens, Greece.
1988 4th International Triennial of Drawing, Wroclaw, Poland.
1986 Recordings, BWA, Lublin Poland.
1985 Videoforum, STK, Łódz, Poland.
1984 Nieme Kino (Silent Kino), Strych, Lódz, Poland.
1983 International Graphics II, Gallerija Fenici, Valletta, Malta.
1981 Sztuka Faktu (Art of Facts) 1970-1980, BWA, Bydgoszcz, Poland. Nowe Zjawiska w Sztuce 70-80 (New Appearances in Art 70-80), BWA, Sopot, Poland.
1981 Miastko 81, Artist plain-air Miastko, Poland.
1979 FOTO-EXPO, Poznań, Poland.
SELECTED OTHER PROJECTS
Books: Limits of human abilities, Art is in Life, Real Information, Pro/La manifesto
Films: Limits of human abilities, Art is in Life, Pictures, Woman’s art
COLLECTIONS
Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
Project-Galerie New Space Fulda, Germany
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CRITICAL REVIEWS
Ksiazki i strony (Books & Pages) Rypson Piotr,Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland. 1992
The Films of Polish Women Artists in the 1970s and 1980s – From the Archive of Polish Experimental Film, Ronduda Lukasz ArtMargins 2004
Kultura zrzuty Truszkowski Jerzy, “Fort Sztuki” Magazine, Kraków, Poland. Jan 2005
The Films of Polish Women Artists in the 1970s and 1980
From the Archive of Polish Experimental Film
ARTMargins Online: ARTMAGASINS http://www.artmargins.com/index.php/8-archive/216-the-films-of-polish-women-artists-in-the-1970s-and-1980s-from-the-archive-of-polish-experimental-film-
Kultura zrzuty Festiwal Sztuka i Dokumentacja | Art and Documentation Festival Journal on Art
http://www.doc.art.pl/sympozjum2012.htm
EDUCATION & TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS
Masters of Fine Art and Education
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland
University of Toronto, Information Technology Centre, Toronto, ON
Computer Applications in Graphic Design
Editorial Design course
Ontario College of Art, Toronto, ON
Iwona Lemke Konart 