Karolina Hałatek co-operates with engineers, technologists, and scientists. Her installations use sparse forms and exploit materials such as neons, lasers, light, and mirrors. The artist reveals the physical character of these matters in order to say something about them. She doesn’t, however, consider herself a creator of minimal art.
She gives her works symbolism referring to perception, workings of the mind, and ontological problems. Most of her works are visionary environments engaging the viewer and making the experience contemplative or even meditative.
Karolina Hałatek’s works have been exhibited at Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, during Kinetica Art Fair in London, Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, OMONIA Biennale and Transmission Art Festival in Athens, Light Move Festival, Fotofestival in Łódź, and galleries in London, Berlin, Wrocław, Warsaw, Łódź, Bytom, Radom, Tczew, and Lublin. She participated in XXXIII Plener dla Artystów Posługujących się Językiem Geometrii (editor’s translation: 33th Plein Air Workshop for Artists Using the Language of Geometry), organised by Dr. Bożena Kowalska. In 2015 Hałatek took part in MONA FOMA Festival in Tasmania, where her video was transmitted into space.
Katarzyna Hałatek is also an author of fashion scenographies (IMA MAD, Fashion Week Poland, Łódź, 2012), theatrical set designs (Orisons directed by Judith Bird, Wimbledon Studio Theatre, London, 2007; The Visit, Arthur Cotterell Theatre, Kingston College, London, 2007; Hansel & Gretel directed by Damian Sandys, C Theatre Company, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2006; Shakespeare for Breakfast directed by Damian Sandys, C Theatre Company, Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, 2006) and scenographies for film (Nowa, Dekalog 89+, directed by Tomasz Olejarczyk, 2010).
To find out more, visit the artist’s website: www.karolinahalatek.com
Individual exhibitions:
- 2016 – Terminal, Ascends – Aufstiege Lichtkunstfestival, Stuttgart
- 2014 – Scanner Room, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw
- 2012 – Iridescent, Czarny Neseser, BWA Design Gallery, Wrocław
- 2011 – Enter Me, Galeria 2.0, Warsaw
- 2006 – Over C, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, C Venues, Scotland
Group exhibitions:
- 2016 – Pankiewicz i po. Uwalnianie koloru / Pankiewicz and after: Setting the colour free, Lublin Museum; Forma i Nieprzedstawialne / Form and the Undepicatble, Mazowieckie Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Elektrownia, Radom; Rzeczy / Things, Museum of Archaelogy and Ethnography, Łódź; Transmission Art Festival, Art Beinnale in Athens OMONIA, Greece; Forma i Nieprzedstawialne / Form and the Undepicatble, XX1 Gallery, Warsaw
- 2015 – Bátor Tábor — contemporary art exhibition and auction, Zachęta — National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; Mere Formality, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin; Museum of Old and New Art, Berriedale, Tasmania; Bez Tytułu / Untitled, exhibition of the graduates of Professor Rosław Szaybo Studio, Faculty of Media Art, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw
- 2014 – Enter Me, Kinetica Art Fair, London; Scanner Room, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia; Cave, Low On Gas, OFF Piotrkowska Gallery, Łódź
- 2013 – REM, Galeria w Domu / Gallery at Home, The Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom
- 2012 – Zero Interwoven, Opus Gallery, Fotofestival, Łódź; Zakład Fryzjerski, Dobro i Piękno / Hairdressing Salon, Goodness and Beauty, happening in public space, Łódź
- 2011 – Enter Me, Light Move Festival, Łódź; Enter Me, Łódź Design Festival; Light Timer, Light Move Festival, Łódź
- 2010 – Pink Floe, Festiwal Zdarzenia, Tczew; Et In Arcadia Ego, Rundgang, Universität der Künste Berlin; Pictures Taken in Dreams, Rundgang, Universität der Künste Berlin; Migration, Design Transfer Gallery, Berlin; Sticks and Stones, Design Transfer Gallery, Berlin
- 2009 – After Nazca, Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź; Bez Tytułu / Untitled, exhibition of works created at plein air workshops, Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź; Untitled, My Space.Lodz, installation in public space, Łódź
- 2008 – Made of Sky, Wimbledon Space, University of the Arts London; Untitled, Very Good Room Gallery, London; Falling, Whitechapel Gallery, performance, London
sources: materials provided by the artist, written by AS, 25.07.2016, translated by NS July 2016