Bio
Ewa Wes is a Polish visual artist and sculptor born in 1982 in Kraków, Poland, where she lives and works. Her practice focuses on sculpture and installation, investigating how invisible forces become perceptible through matter, inscription, and spatial experience. Working with objects, installations, two-dimensional works, and interventions in public space, she develops systems based on registration, repetition, seriality, and spatial relations.
Ewa Wes received an MFA in Sculpture from the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 2007. In 2022, she completed a PhD in Arts and Conservation of Works of Art at the same institution. Her doctoral research examined the relationship between art and science, focusing on historical changes in the understanding and representation of time and space before and after the formulation of the theory of relativity. In 2020–2021, she completed the Of Public Interest post-master programme at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm, where she participated in OPI – Of Public Interest Research Lab.
Across sculpture, installation, public-space works, and two-dimensional works, Wes develops a continuous body of work concerned with inscription, memory, duration, and the perception of spatial relations. Her installations are composed of multiple elements in which meaning emerges through the relation between objects and through the movement of the viewer in space. Her two-dimensional works extend the same logic of registration into a flat format, while her public-space interventions introduce durable objects and inscriptions into existing urban, architectural, and landscape contexts.
In 2022, Wes realized Liminality, a permanent public artwork at Oawa Mountain in Kamiyama, Tokushima, Japan. Situated in the forest, the work was conceived as a place without a predetermined function or meaning. Consisting of a concrete platform, a stone surface, a bench, and carving tools available to visitors, it remains open to the gradual accumulation of traces produced through repeated encounters. Ewa Wes has exhibited internationally and has participated in exhibitions, residencies, and research programmes in Europe, the United States, and Japan.
Collaborations
She collaborates with Marla Heid through WES&HEID, a duo initiated following their participation in the Of Public Interest post-master programme at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm. Their joint work focuses on temporary and site-responsive interventions in public space, addressing the relationship between material presence, duration, and context.
Wes has contributed to publications developed through the #Nodos platform, an international initiative bringing together artists, scientists, and writers to explore interactions between different fields of knowledge. These include #Nodos. Lienzos y matraces (2017) and #Nodes: Entangling Sciences and Humanities (2019).
CV
Ewa Wes, born in 1982
studio in Krakow, Poland
Academic
2012 – 2022 PhD, Arts and Conservation of Works of Art
Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland
2020-2021 Post Master, Of Public Interest programme
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, Krakow, Poland
Solo shows
2022 2021
Otwarta Pracownia, Krakow, Poland
2021 Blühende Öde – Urban identities in transition
Am Flutgraben 3, Berlin, Germany
2020 ~
Concordia Gallery, Enschede, Netherlands
The project was initiated by TransCultural Exchange during the lockdown period. It connected multiple galleries and institutions through a series of online exhibitions and presentations hosted across different gallery websites.
2020 ~
ARE Holland, Enschede, Netherlands
The project was initiated by TransCultural Exchange during the lockdown period. It connected multiple galleries and institutions through a series of online exhibitions and presentations hosted across different gallery websites.
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, Krakow, Poland
Group shows
2026 Bright Depth
Pałac Potockich, Krakow, Poland
2026 Unknown Field
Pałac Nieśmierteności, Krakow, Poland
2026 Tween Peaks
Dom Doktora Gallery, Zakopane, Poland
2025 Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze II
Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow, Poland
2025 Uban 2 Gołąb
Bałagan Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2025 Przestrzenie napięć
The 4th edition of the Cracow Artistic Meetings Festival Identity of Ideas
Large-scale outdoor sculpture exhibition, Krakow, Poland
2024 Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze
Pałac Potockich, Krakow, Poland
2022 Inbetween
Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Krakow, Poland
2020 New Members of ZPAP
(the Association of Polish Artists and Designers)
Pryzmat Gallery, Krakow, Poland
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 Ceramic Artist in Residence 2015
Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster, Germany
2015 Cinema Art Culture Festival ROJAL
Roja, Latvia
2015 Forecast Forum
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2014 Rock Paper Scissors
Roodkapje Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Route du Nord Light Festival
2013 DordtYart 2013
DordtYart, Dordrecht, Netherlands
2012 Observations
Museum of Czestochowa, Czestochowa, Poland
2011 ArtSesja Festival
Krakow, 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, Krakow, Poland
2004 Road to Freedom
European Solidarity Centre, Gdansk, Poland
Public space
2025 Pamiętaj Zapomnij
4 Zwierzyniecka Street, Krakow, Poland
October 4 – November 4, 2025 Remeber to forget (stamps)
Bałagan Gallery, Krakow, Poland
2021 – 2022 Remeber to forget (stamps)
Berlin, Germany and Krakow, Poland
2022 Liminality
Oawa Mountain, Kamiyama, Japan
April 1 – April 30, 2022 Hello World
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, USA
October 24 – October 30, 2021 Blühende Öde
EWA WES + MARLA HEID
Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
March 30 – April 30, 2021 Hello World
Boston City Hall, USA
October 10, 2020 Hello World
Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
February 1 – March 5, 2018 Did just Happen
Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Japan
2011 Yellow Brick Road
Artsesja Festival, Łąki nowohuckie, NCK, Krakow, Poland
Awards
2015 Polish Culture Around the World grant
Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland
2011 Creative Scholarship of the City of Krakow
Krakow, Poland
2006 Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage
Warsaw, Poland
Residencies
and fellowships
2022 KAIR
Kamiyama, Japan
2018 Akiyoshidai International Art Village
Akiyoshi, Mine, Yamaguchi, Japan
2017 The Wapping Project
Berlin, Germany
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
Schöppingen, Germany
2015 Künstlerhaus Stadttöpferei Neumünster
Neumünster, Germany
2015 Atelier Austmarka
Austmarka, Norway
2013 CAMAC Centre d’art Marnay Art Centre
Marnay-sur-Seine, France
2013 DordtYart
Dordrecht, Netherlands
2012 Centre d’Art La Rectoria
Sant Pere de Vilamajor (Barcelona), Spain
2011 Clews Center for the Arts
Chateau de la Napoule, France
Publications
Ewa Wes, The Tormenting Persistence of the Unknown
Unknown Field Project, 2026.
[contributor]
Ewa Wes, Radim Koros, Grzegorz Bugaj, Agata Haciuk, Unknown (zin)
Krakow, Poland: Pałac Nieśmiertelności and Unknown Filed Project, 2026.
[contributor]
Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze II (exhibition catalog)
Krakow, Poland: Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, 2025.
[featured]
Identity of Ideas – The 4th edition of the Cracow Artistic Meetings Festival (exhibition catalog)
Krakow, Poland: Association of Polish Artists and Designers (Krakow branch), 2025.
[featured]
Konfrontacje w trójwymiarze I (exhibition catalog)
Krakow, Poland: Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, 2024.
[featured]
Maris Grosbahs, ROJA LAB
Latvia: Makslas grupa ROKU, 2021.
[featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Marla Heid, Blühende Öde – Urban Identities in Transition (exhibition catalog)
Berlin: Kunstbüro Hohmann und Heid, 2021.
[featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Gustavo Ariel Schwartz, Víctor Bermúdez, eds. #Nodes: Entangling Sciences and Humanities
Translated by Allan Owen. Mestizajes Programme. Bristol Chicago: intellect, 2019.
[contributor under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Akiyoshidai International Art Village – The 20th Anniversary Report Book
Yamaguchi, Japan: Akiyoshidai International Art Village, 2019.
[featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
The Future of This Land, TRANS_ 2017–2018 (exhibition catalog)
Yamaguchi, Japan: Akiyoshidai International Art Village, 2018.
[featured under former name Ewa Wesolowska]
Flavia Rovetta, Ewa Wesolowska. (interview)
Made In Mind Magazine, Portraits, no. 12 (Spring-Summer 2018).
Gustavo Ariel Schwartz, Víctor Bermúdez, eds. #NODOS
1.a edición. Lienzos y matraces. Pamplona: Next Door Publishers, 2017.
[contributor under former name Ewa Wesolowska]