Ewa Wes
Visual artist, sculptor
Born in 1982 in Cracow, Poland
Ewa Wes works with sculpture and installation, treating the object not as a form of expression but as a material record. Her practice focuses on the registration of processes not directly accessible to immediate experience and on their transfer into durable materials. Time is approached as duration rather than as an event, and the object functions as a trace produced through process, repetition, and sequence.
A single object does not operate autonomously. Meaning is not contained within an isolated form but emerges through series and multiplication. For this reason, Ewa Wes realizes her works as installations composed of multiple elements, in which spatial relations between partial records become central. The installation does not synthesize these elements into a unified whole; instead, it holds them in tension as coexisting fragments of a larger structure of inscription.
Within these arrangements, memory is not represented or narrated. It functions as a form of storage, embedded through inscription, accumulation, and the continued presence of material traces. Wes’s practice situates sculpture and installation as systems of record rather than means of expression.
Works on canvas are developed according to the same principles of registration and repetition. Each recorded element retains the status of an individual trace while remaining subordinated to the overall structure of the work. These pieces operate as ordered constellations of records, in which no single element is complete in itself.
In her works in public space, Wes introduces durable objects and inscriptions into existing sites. These interventions function as material traces embedded within the given structure of a place, without establishing commemorative forms or narrative frameworks. The works remain present over time, subject to incidental encounter, gradual accumulation, and long-term persistence.
In her doctoral dissertation (Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, 2022, under her former name Ewa Wesolowska), Wes examined the relationship between art and science, focusing on historical shifts in the representation of time and space before and after the formulation of the theory of relativity.
Collaborations
WES & HEID – Critical Narratives and Transformations of Public Spaces
Ewa Wes collaborates with Marla Heid as part of the WES & HEID project, which was born at OPI – Of Public Interest Research Lab at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm. OPI Lab aimed to inspire social change by integrating art and artistic projects into public spaces, while engaging with their social, political, and historical contexts.
Within this framework, WES & HEID develop projects that operate through temporary, site-responsive interventions, combining Heid’s research on impermanence and contextual adaptation with Wes’s focus on the object as a material record. Their joint practice addresses public space as a dynamic field shaped by ongoing social and institutional processes, where meaning emerges through duration, accumulation, and contextual displacement rather than through fixed form or narrative.
#NODOS
Wes experience includes collaboration with #Nodos, a publication, platform, and meeting point where artists, scientists, and writers share experiences and reflections on the relevance and possibilities of interaction between different disciplines. This collaboration resulted in publications in 2017 and 2019:
- #Nodos. Lienzos y matraces, red. Gustavo Ariel Schwartz, Víctor Bermúdez (Next Door Publishers, 2017)
Next Door Publishers. Intellect Books - #Nodes: Entangling Sciences and Humanities, red. Gustavo Ariel Schwartz, Víctor Bermúdez (Intellect, 2019)
Chicago Press JSTOR digital library of academic journals books and primary sources
- #Nodos. Lienzos y matraces, red. Gustavo Ariel Schwartz, Víctor Bermúdez (Next Door Publishers, 2017)
Academic
2012 – 2022 PhD
Arts and Conservation of Works of Art
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland
2020-2021 Post Master
Of Public Interest
Department for Research and Further Education in Architecture and Fine Art
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KKH), Stockholm
2002-2007 MFA
Faculty of Sculpture
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow
Selected shows
Solo
2022 2021, Otwarta Pracownia, Cracow, Poland
2021 Blühende Öde – Urban identities in transition, Am Flutgraben 3, Berlin, Germany
2020 online show, ARE Holland, Enschede, Netherlands,
(at the initiative of TransCultural Exchange)
2020 online show, Concordia Gallery, Enschede, Netherlands,
(at the initiative of TransCultural Exchange)
2017 It’s just a Matter of Time, Espace Kugler, Geneva, Switzerland
2016 ~ , Concordia Gallery, Enschede, Netherlands
2015 O=O, Center of Polish Sculpture, Oronsko, Poland
2012 Open Sculpture, Artemis Gallery, Cracow, Poland
2010 In a crowd, Contemporary Art Center Solvay, Cracow, Poland
Group
2025 Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze II, Academy of Fine Arts, Cracow, Poland
2025 Uban 2 Gołąb, Galeria Bałagan, Cracow, Poland
2025 Przestrzenie napięć, Large-scale outdoor sculpture exhibition
The 4th edition of the Cracow Artistic Meetings Festival “Identity of Ideas”
Cracow, Poland
2024 Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze, Pałac Potockich, Cracow, Poland
2022 Inbetween, Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Cracow, Poland
2020 – 2022 Hello World – a cycle of online exhibitions by Transcultural exchange:
2022 Scollay Square Gallery, Boston City Hall, Boston, USA
2022 facade of Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MassArt, Boston, USA
2020 group presentation, facade of Sarajevo’s History Museum
of Bosnia and Herzegovina
2020 New Members of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers (ZPAP),
Pryzmat Gallery, Cracow
2019 Feu Sacré – 5th Biennial of Kugler Artists, Usine Kugler, Geneva, Switzerland
2018 The Future of This Land, Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi, Japan
2017 Made in Neumünster – 30 Jahre Künstlerhaus,
Papierfabrik Neumünster, Neumünster, Germany
2016 Lights Out!, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, USA
2015 Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster, Germany
2015 Cinema Art Culture ROJAL, Roja, Latvia
2015 Forecast Forum, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2014 Rock Paper Scissors, Route du Nord Light Festival,
Roodkapje Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2013 Ephemeros, Cellar Gallery, Cracow, Poland
2013 DordtYart 2013, DordtYart, Dordrecht, Netherlands
2012 Observations, Museum of Czestochowa, Czestochowa, Poland
2011 ArtSesja Festival, Cracow, Poland
2009 Warsaw39 – This is important for what you can die,
Historical Museum of Warsaw, Poland
2009 Nude, Gallery of the Association of Polish Artists and Designers
(ZPAP Łódź), Lodz, Poland
2007 Best of Cracow Academy of Fine Art, Palace of Art, Cracow, Poland
2004 Road to Freedom, European Solidarity Centre, Gdansk, Poland
Works in Public space
2025 Remember to Forget – Forget to Remember
ul. Zwierzyniecka 4, Cracow, Poland
2022 Liminality, Oawa Mountain, Kamiyama, Tokushima, Japan
2021 WES & HEID collaboration, Blühende Öde – Urban identities in transition
(series of temporary interventions), Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
2018 Did Just Happen (temporary intervention),
Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi, Japan
2015 Suspension, Roja, Latvia
2011 Follow the Yellow Brick Road, NCK Nowa Huta Cultural Centre, Cracow, Poland
2010 Notes on the Water (temporary installation), Adam Mickiewicz Park, Gdansk, Poland
Awards
2015 Polish Culture Around the World Grant, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland
2011 Creative Scholarship of the City of Cracow, Poland
2008 Diploma from the Cracow Society of Fine Arts Friends (TPSP Krakow),
Palace of Art, Cracow, Poland
2006 Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Warsaw, Poland
Residencies
2022 KAIR, Kamiyama, Japan
2018 Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi, Japan
2017 The Wapping Project, Berlin
2017 Trelex Artist residency, Trelex, Switzerland
2016 Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA, USA
2016 ARE Holland, Enschede, Netherlands
2016 Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen fellowship, Germany
2015 Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster, Neumünster, Germany
2015 Atelier Austmarka, Norway
2013 CAMAC Centre d’art Marnay Art Centre, Marnay-sur-Seine, France
2013 DordtYart, Dordrecht, Netherlands
2011 Clews Center for the Arts, Chateau de la Napoule, France
Publications
Heid, Marla. Blühende Öde – Urban Identities in Transition (exhibition catalog). Berlin: Kunstbüro Hohmann und Heid, 2021. [featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Schwartz, Gustavo Ariel, and Víctor Bermúdez, eds. #Nodes: Entangling Sciences and Humanities. Translated by Allan Owen. Mestizajes Programme. Bristol Chicago: intellect, 2019. [contributor under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Chicago Press JSTOR digital library of academic journals books and primary sources
Akiyoshidai International Art Village – The 20th Anniversary Report Book. Yamaguchi, Japan: Akiyoshidai International Art Village, 2019. [featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
online pdf
Rovetta, Flavia, “Ewa Wesolowska.” (interview), Made In Mind Magazine, Portraits, no. 12 (Spring-Summer 2018).
Made In Mind (online version)
The Future of This Land, TRANS_ 2017–2018 (exhibition catalog). Yamaguchi, Japan: Akiyoshidai International Art Village, 2018. [featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Schwartz, Gustavo Ariel, and Víctor Bermúdez, eds. #Nodos. 1.a edición. Lienzos y matraces. Pamplona: Next Door Publishers, 2017. [contributor under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Next Door Publishers Intellect Books
Ceramic Artist in Residence 2015. Neumünster, Germany: Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster, 2016. [featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Batko, Anna. “Open Your Eyes, I Can’t See You: On Ewa Wesołowska’s Exhibition O=O, [org: Otwórz oczy, bo Cię nie widzę, o wystawie Ewy Wesołowskiej].” (exhibition review) Polish Sculpture Center quarterly magazine [Kwartalnik Rzeźby OROŃSKO], no. nr 1-2 (2015). [featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Księgarnia CRP Orońsko online eng version Pdf pl+eng
Open Up The Sculpture [Otworzyć Rzeźbę] – Ewa Wesołowska (exhibition catalog). Cracow, Poland: Galeria Artemis, 2012.