Alicja Kwade
Polish-German
1979
Alicja Kwade was born in Katowice, Poland in 1979 and lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She relocated to Germany in her youth and later completed her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der Künste Berlin).
Kwade's practice is rooted in the concept of the "decentralization of perception." Using natural stone, metal, and everyday objects as her primary media, she employs mirroring, repetition, and the dissolution of material weight to challenge established natural laws such as gravity, time, and space. In her installations, she often uses slender tensegrity structures to present massive boulders in suspended, weightless trajectories that evoke planetary orbits. Through this deconstruction and reconstruction of physical form, she questions the very formation of order.
Kwade's significant exhibitions include the solo presentation Dusty Die at M‑Museum Leuven (2025), the commissioned installation ParaPivot for The Metropolitan Museum of Art's roof garden (2019), and her participation in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). Her work is held in major public collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; and K11 Art Foundation, Hong Kong.
