Karolina Balcer (b. 1988) Graduate of the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław (2014) and interdepartmental doctoral studies at the same school (2017). The media she uses are painting, video, installations in public space, and more recently tufting (carpet technique) or the textile method in its broadest sense. Her work often deals with architecture, which she treats as a tool for organising social or family life, but also as a refuge. Many of her projects begin with observations of people, social problems, including her own family. Between 2015 and 2019, she co-headed the Wykwit gallery in Wrocław. From 2017 to 2020, she was a member of the Wykwitex art collective. Since 2019, she has been heading the nomadic initiative Why Quit with Iwona Ogrodzka.
Since 2020 she has been working on a family project called Happy Family addressing mental health issues, culminating in a series of exhibitions with an accompanying education programme to raise awareness of mental health and homelessness. The series begins with an exhibition at the Zachęta Project Room. The publication Happy Family — poradnik zdrowia psychicznego [Happy Family — A Guide to Mental Health] will soon be published by Krupa Gallery and the Bęc Zmiana publishing house.
The artist currently lives and works in Warsaw.
