Lot Essay
Zofia Kulik was born in Wroclaw, Poland in 1947. She studied at the Art Academy of Warsaw and graduated with a diploma in sculpture in 1971. Together with Przemyslaw Kwiek she founded the artist duo KwieKulik, which existed from 1971 until 1987. KwieKulik became known for their arousing and innovative performances. They ran an independent Studio for Art Activities, Documentation and Propagation in their private apartment in Warsaw. Its archives contain slides and negatives of ephemeral art in Poland of seventies, and prints and artists books. Their main focus was on actions, installations, objects, interventions, texts, films, slides and mail-art. Since 1987 she has been working individually, and concentrates on the medium of black-and-white photography by creating large-sized photo compositions from numerous small pictures. Her monumental black and white constructions connect like a puzzle to reveal the whole image. Thematically, she focuses on the relationship of man and woman, the individual and the mass, as well as on symbols of power and totalitarianism. A further fundamental theme in her work is the mass-media and its influence on consumers. Amongst her numerous exhibitions her participation at the Venice Biennial (1997) and the Documenta XII in Kassel (2007) deserve special note.