Alicja Biała (b. 1993, Poznań) is a multidisciplinary and multimedia artist based between Poland, the Netherlands, and the UK. In her practice, she experiments with scale and materials, with works ranging from large-scale murals and sculptures to architectural and lighting installations, and from drawing to etchings.
Her work often references pagan motifs, interweaving tradition with the political and personal tensions of everyday life and aiming to cut into our shared cultural past. In Biała's pieces you may encounter future agricultural societies dancing in bacchanalian rituals, through fields riddled with potatoes; classes gathering to celebrate the harvest of a new world growing from the bones of a ruined one; warrioresses riding to battle atop endangered reptiles; colourful chandeliers emitting beams of lights that ward off the spirits of globalisation; potatoes continuing their silent growth in the midst of a poisoned land. Both speculative and interrogative, her practice examines Slavic histories, paganism, migration, politics, the formation of cultural identity and environmental degradation.
Biała often works serially, with series ranging from the Polish Cut-Outs (Wycinanki Polskie), to the toxic-waste-based Acid etchings and her hanging light sculptures (pająki), to the large-scale outdoor Totemy sculptures that visualise climate change data. Commissioned by the Prime Minister of Poland, Biała recently opened the exhibit of her installation ‘Beneath the soft ground, hard ground’, in the Europa Building in Brussels. On twelve large brass panels, Biała shows Central European plants with regenerative properties, whose vegetation cycles follow the months of the year.
Recent solo exhibitions include; ‘Acid Pond/Zatruty Staw’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków, Poland (2024); ‘This is indeed a wonderful country’ Galerie Hussenot, Paris (2023); ‘Riding Through Onion Fields’ Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland (2022); ‘Merersyde Totemy’ public sculpture opening, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2022); ‘Beneath the Soft Ground’ Hard Ground, Incubator, London (2022); ‘Pająki/Spiders’ Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Ustka/Słupsk, Poland (2022). Recent group exhibitions include; ‘Immortal Apples’ Eternal Eggs, Hastings Contemporary, London (2024); ‘Let’s make miłość’ Miłość Gallery, London (2024); ‘Utopia’ Incubator, London (2024); ‘Opowieść z Dna Studni’ Borowik Foundation, Warsaw (2024); Soil Horizon, Kirki, Sifnos, Greece (2024); ‘RDS Summer Show’ RDS, London (2024); ‘Food in Art’ Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, Poland (2024); ‘Malcriadas’ Her Clique, Lisbon (2024); ‘Refugees Welcome’ The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2023); ‘Nay’ her foot speaks, Cooke Latham Gallery, London (2023); ‘When the heart of a pig has hardened, dice it small’ Kirki projects, Tinos, Greece (2023); ‘The Poet’s Folly and the Sovereign’s Hand’ Art Biesenthal, Wehrmuehle, Berlin (2023).