Goshka Macuga was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1967. She has lived in London since 1989. She completed her BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College in London and her Master Degree in Fine Arts at Goldsmiths University of London.
Goshka Macuga is an interdisciplinary artist working across media including sculpture, installation, photography and video. Her practice connects different areas and methods of research. Her inquiries are often focused on institutional histories proposing unconventional associative readings of their social and political histories. Macuga’s strategic orchestration of existing materials, collectables and archival documents support the reframing of established narratives.
She was included in Documenta 13 in 2012 in Kassel, Germany and Kabul, Afghanistan; 8th Berlin Biennale, Museen Dahlem, Berlin, Germany; 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; 53rd Venice Biennale: Fare Mondi//Making Worlds, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venice, Italy; How to Live Together, 27th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2008. In 2013 she was given an Annual Award of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the field of visual arts. Her work is included in numerous public collections including Tate, MoMA, Government Art Collection, Arts Council Collection, MCA Chicago, Walker Art Center, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Neues Museum, Nuremberg and Castello di Rivoli.
In 2023 she created a sculpture titled GONOGO for Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, exhibited at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The initial proposal for the sculpture was shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London in 2021. In 2019, she conceived Exhibition M, a large-scale commission for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
She has had solo exhibitions at the New Museum, New York, USA; Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy; Neues Museum, Nüremberg, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA; Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; Tate Britain, London, UK; Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis, USA; Museo de arte contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Spain, Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain.
Installation view of 'To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll' at Fondazione Prada – Milano, 2016
Goshka Macuga in collaboration with Patrick Tresset, ‘Before the Beginning and After the End’, 2016. 5 tables (blue, red, green, yellow, gray) with vitrines, biro drawings by system “Paul-n” on paper scrolls, artworks and objects 1 table (black) with biro drawings by system “Paul-A” on a paper scroll.
In the foreground: John De Andrea, ‘Arden Anderson and Norma Murphy’, 1972. Oil on polyester and fiberglass.
Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Prada
Installation view of 'To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll' at Fondazione Prada – Milano, 2016
In the foreground: Lucio Fontana, ‘Concetto spaziale. Natura’, 1959-60. Bronze.
Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Prada
Installation view of 'The Nature of The Beast' at Whitechapel Gallery, 2009
Mixed media installation. Guernica tapestry, wood and glass table, 16 leather and metal chairs.
Courtesy Whitechapel Gallery. Photo: Patrick Lears
Goshka Macuga,Of what is, that it is; of what is not, that it is not 1,2012.
Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, 2012.
Wool tapestry. 520 x 1726 cm. Courtesy of Goshka Macuga. Photo: Roman März.
Goshka Macuga,I could have gone on flying through space forever but I have always loved a window, especially an open one,2023.
‘Public Matters: Contemporary Art in Belvedere Garden’, Belvedere, Vienna, Austria.
Mixed media installation. Courtesy of Belvedere, Vienna. Photo Johannes Stoll/ Belvedere, Vienna.
Installation view of 'Turner Prize' at Tate Britain, 2008
Courtesy of Kate MacGarry London. Photo: Andy Stagg
Goshka Macuga,Exhibition M,2019.
Public Space Artist Commissions, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.
Jacquard tapestry. 1110 x 1510 cm. Courtesy of Goshka Macuga. Photo: Goshka Macuga.
Goshka Macuga,GONOGO,2023.
‘Reaching for the Stars’, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy, 2023.
Courtesy of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. Photo: Okno Studio, Ela Bialkowska.
2023Reaching for the Stars, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
2021Goshka Macuga: In Flux, Museo de arte contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León
2019Exhibition M, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2016Goshka Macuga: Time as Fabric, New Museum, New York
2016Goshka Macuga: To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll, Fondazione Prada, Milan
2014 8th Berlin Biennale, Museen Dahlem, Berlin
2012Goshka Macuga: Exhibit, A, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2012 dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany and Kabul, Afghanistan
2011Goshka Macuga: Untitled Untitled, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
2011Goshka Macuga: It Broke from Within, Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis
2009Fare Mondi//Making Worlds, 53rd Venice Biennale, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venice
2009Goshka Macuga: The Nature of the Beast, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2009Goshka Macuga: I Am Become Death, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
2008 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
2008Turner Prize 2008, Tate Britain, London
2006How to Live Together, 27th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo
2013 Annual Award of the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage in the field of Visual Arts
Lead image caption:
Portrait of Goshka Macuga by Kasia Bobula.
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