Martyna Pinkowska was born in 1997. She graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in 2022, where she defended her diploma exhibition Polly Pocket Syndrome under the supervision of Professor Jacek Rykała. She works with painting and film, creates objects and installations. In her work, the artist reflects on what shapes her female identity. A feeling of uncertainty is the basis of her works, in which fantasy and reality intertwine. She finds recurring elements in her own experiences and those of women closest to her, recognising universal fears, anxieties and desires. Pinkowska explores how we navigate expectations and paradigms of femininity, focusing on the relationship between mother and daughter.

Martyna’s exploration of the body and skin draws from her personal experiences. Her struggle with body image and perception becomes a lens through which she examines broader cultural anxieties around physicality and identity. Her surreal compositions of fragmented, intertwined, and blurred figures tread the thin line between concealment and exposure, vulnerability and strength. She questions how the body’s function as a site of comfort or discomfort shapes one’s self-image. Martyna explores to what extent is the body a costume and what does it mean to inhabit one’s skin.

Her practise delves into the symbolic potential of clothing, skin, and the act of dressing—or undressing—one’s self. Martyna draws on the body as a vessel for emotional and cultural meanings, exploring its role as a “costume” that both defines and obscures identity. Her works invite contemplation of the ways we inhabit our bodies, the dissonance between how we see ourselves and how we are seen, and the material and emotional labor of self-presentation.

She lives and works in Warsaw.

Selected solo exhibitions:

2024

Nada Villa Warsaw, Warsaw, PL

Selected group exhibitions:

2025

A Sense of Space, ABRI MARS, New York, USA

2024

A Small Land of Watery Light, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN

2023

Critical Mass, Oblatów 4, Katowice, PL

2022

Naj, Naj, Naj, Próżnia Gallery, Szczecin, PL

Material Fatigue, Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź, PL

The Discomfort of Evening, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL

Migrations, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej BWA, Katowice, PL

Refugees Welcome, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL

2021

Materia bazowa, Rondo Sztuki, Katowice, PL

Under My Ribs a Home Lives, Galeria Serce Człowieka, Warsaw, PL

In These Days of Tumult, Heat and Dazzle, I Retreat into My Mind, Stefan Gierowski Foundation, Warsaw, PL

Uważaj, niech tylko mój terapeuta to usłyszy, Galeria Podbrzezie, Cracow, PL

Salon Wiosenny, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Opole, PL

Nowy Obraz Nowe Spojrzenie, Stara Papiernia, University of the Arts, Poznań, PL

2020

First Sense, Cricoteka, Centre for the Documentation of the Art of Tadeusz Kantor, Cracow, PL