Wanda Czełkowska was born in 1930, Brest, Belarus. She was a key figure of the Polish avant-garde. She studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow between 1949 and 1954, at a time when socialist realism was the prevailing artistic doctrine. Czełkowska was a member of the seminal Second Kraków Group (1968–1982), whose other members included Tadeusz Kantor, Erna Rosenstein, Maria Jarema, and Maria Pinińska-Bereś. In 1963, she participated in the III Biennale de Paris, where she resided with Alina Szapocznikow and Roman Cieślewicz until her departure for a cultural fellowship in Rome.

Her oeuvre was defined by an investigation of the limits of different artistic forms and disciplines, encompassing sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, and photography. She placed particular emphasis on the intellectual and analytical dimensions of the artistic process. Thus, the central motif in Czełkowska’s work was the head, initially reflecting the stylistic conventions of Etruscan sculpture and later developing into an abstract form in her remarkable Heads series. From the 1970s, her work moved towards conceptual realisations, of which Table (1968–1971) and Absolute Elimination of Sculpture as a Notion of Shape (1972) are the most significant examples. In 1972, Czełkowska was invited to Edinburgh by Richard Demarco to participate in the exhibition Atelier ’72. Due to technical difficulties, she presented Conceptual Information about the ‘Table’. In lieu of an actual installation, the artist situated the plaster heads directly on the ground between two panels, illustrating the initial concept of the piece.

Despite her pioneering body of work, Czełkowska’s oeuvre remained underrecognized for much of her career, gaining wider recognition only in her later years. In 2016, the National Museum in Warsaw organised a comprehensive exhibition of her work, entitled Retrospection, which was followed by an international symposium. In 2023, her first major retrospective outside Poland, Art Is Not Rest, was held at the Muzeum Susch in Switzerland.

Her works are part of numerous institutional collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the National Museum in Krakow, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Centre of Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, and the Zamoyski Museum in Kozłówka.

Selected solo and duo exhibitions:

2024

Geta Brătescu, Wanda Czełkowska, Galeria Monopol, Warsaw, PL (with Geta Brătescu)

2023

Posthuman Abstraction, Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong, CN (with Zuza Golińska) 

Art Is Not Rest, Muzeum Susch, Susch, CH

2019

Betwixt, Piktogram, Warsaw, PL (with Paul Czerlitzki) 

2016

Wanda Czełkowska: Retrospection, Xavery Dunikowski Museum Of Sculpture in Królikarnia, National Museum, Warsaw, PL

1996

Wanda Czełkowska, Centre for Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, PL

1990

Elegy. Reminder After, Zderzak Gallery, Krakow, PL

1969

Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, PL

1963

Wanda Czełkowska, Galeria Krzysztofory, Krakow, PL

Selected group exhibitions:

2024

The Plastic Body, Stavanger Art Museum, NO

2023

Obsession I, ECHO, Cologne, DE

2020

Sour Cherries, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL 

Theft and Destruction, Arsenal Gallery, Białystok, PL 

On the Politics of Delicacy, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, DE

2019

Under the Radar: Contemporary Masters from Central & Eastern Europe, Q Contemporary, London, UK

2018

Land of Lads, Land of Lashes, Thaddeus Ropac Gallery, London, UK 

Meditations of Fibonacci. The Corduroy Bunny | Facing Katarzyna Kobro (1898–1951), Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, PL; National Art Gallery, Sopot, PL

Shapeshifting: Eisenstein as Method, Museum of Art, Łódź, PL 

2016

Around the Edge, Broadway 1602, New York, US 

121 Street, Broadway 1602, New York, US

2013

From the Darkness, BWA Sokół Gallery of Contemporary Art, Nowy Sącz, PL

2011

Resistance, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, PL 

2010

The State of Dydo. Polish Contemporary Sculpture, National Art Gallery, Sopot, PL

2008

Pink Intuition, Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture in Królikarnia, National Museum, Warsaw, PL 

2000

Utopia and Vision, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL

1996

The Figure in Polish Sculpture of 19th and 20th Century, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, PL; Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL

1995

Generazioni e Tendenze dell Arte Contemporanea a Cracovia, Palazzo Sinibaldi, Sant’Elpidio a Mare, IT

1993

Modern Polish Sculpture 1955–1992, Centre of Polish Sculpture, Orońsko, PL 

Artists from Kraków, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL

1981

16th Show of Krakow Group, Galeria Krzysztofory, Krakow, PL 

1975

Hommage à Xawery Dunikowski, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL