Joanna Piotrowska
Joanna Piotrowska (born 1985) is a Polish artist based in London. She examines the human condition through performative acts and the construction of multiple ‘social landscapes’ using photography, performance and film. Family archives, self-defence manuals and psychotherapeutic methods are used as reference points as Piotrowska explores the complex roles which play out in everyday performance.
Joanna Piotrowska

Ben Westoby · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Joanna Piotrowska
- Born
- 1985
- Birthplace
- Warsaw, Poland
- Field
- Photography
- Nationality
- Poland
- Occupation
- photographer
- Education
- Royal College of Art
- Languages
- Polish
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Documentary summary
Joanna Piotrowska (born 1985) is a Polish artist based in London. She examines the human condition through performative acts and the construction of multiple ‘social landscapes’ using photography, performance and film. Family archives, self-defence manuals and psychotherapeutic methods are used as reference points as Piotrowska explores the complex roles which play out in everyday performance.
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Note VALÉORINE
Joanna Piotrowska (born 1985) is a Polish photographer. The photographer was born in Warsaw. Joanna Piotrowska studied at Royal College of Art.
Languages used include Polish. Works by the photographer are held at Museum of Modern Art.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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wikidata · Q52159704 · wikipedia · Joanna Piotrowska
In this article
Biography
Biography
Her psychologically charged photographs probe human behaviour and the dynamics of familial relations, exploring intimacy, violence, control, and self-protection. The artist reveals moments of care as well as hierarchies of power, anxieties, and imposed conventions that play out in the domestic sphere. Her work has been exhibited at Le BAL, Paris (2023), Tate Britain (2019), Kunsthalle Basel (2019) and MoMA, New York (2018). She was also included in the 59th Venice Biennale (2022), The 16th Lyon Biennale (2022) and the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018).
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Joanna Piotrowska • Born — 1985 • Birthplace — Warsaw, Poland • Field — Photography • Website — joannapiotrowska.com
Education
Education
• Illustration — Installation view, Art Now. Joanna Piotrowska: All Our False Devices (2019) Piotrowska earned an MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2013.
Career
Career
Piotrowska's 2014 series "FROWST" is a series of staged family portraits. The photos were published in a book by the same name, which won the First Book Award in 2014. After winning one of the three Jerwood/Photoworks Awards in 2015, Piotrowska focused on photographing teenage girls in self-defense poses. She shot the series in Poland, finding subjects through friends and casting agencies that worked with aspiring actresses. In 2016, she began her "Frantic" series, in which she asked adults to construct homemade forts from their personal belongings. She traveled to Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, photographing her subjects in their homes. • Illustration — Installation View, Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices, Kunsthalle Basel (2019).
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
• Being: New Photography 2018, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2018. Curated by Lucy Gallun. • 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2018. Curated by Gabi Ngcobo. • Art Now: Joanna Piotrowska – All Our False Devices, Tate Britain, London, 2019. Curated by Sofia Karamani and Zuzana Flaskov. • Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2019/20. Curated by Elena Filipovic. • Joanna Piotrowska: FROWST, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland, 2020. Curated by Magdalena Komornicka. • Our Red Sky, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden. 2020/21. • Joanna Piotrowska: Sleeping Throat, Bitter Thirst, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany, 2022. Curated by Adam Budak and Robert Knoke • 16th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art: Manifesto of Fragility, Lyon, France, 2022. • 59th Venice Biennale of Art: The Milk of Dreams, Venice, Italy, 2022. Curated by Ceclia Alemani. • Joanna Piotrowska: Entre Nous, Le BaL, Paris, France, 2023. Curated by Diane Dufour and Julie Héraut. • Illustration — Installation Views, Joanna Piotrowska: Entre Nous, Le Bal, Paris (2023)
Publications
• Joanna Piotrowska: FROWST, London: Mack, 2014, 48 p., • Joanna Piotrowska: Frantic, with texts by Sara De Chiara, Anouchka Grose, Pier Paolo Tamburelli. Milan: Humboldt Books, 2017. 108p. ISBN 9788899385354 * • Illustration — Joanna Piotrowska, Untitled, 2017. Silver gelatine hand print, 21 x 27cm. Joanna Piotrowska: Stable Vices, with essays from Sara De Chiara, Joanna Bednarek and Dorota Masłowska, London: Mack, 2021, 176 p., • Illustration — Installation Views, Joanna Piotrowska: Entre Nous, Le Bal, Paris (2023)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Southard Reid. frieze.
- 2.Phillida, Reid. Joanna Piotrowksa CV, Phillida Reid.
- 3.Biennale Arte 2022 Joanna Piotrowska. La Biennale di Venezia. 2022-04-04.
- 4.Joanna Piotrowska – Entre nous. LE BAL. 2023-02-03.
- 5.Tate. Joanna Piotrowska Tate Britain.
- 6.Stable Vices • Kunsthalle Basel. Kunsthalle Basel.
- 7.Being: New Photography 2018 MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art.
- 8.Joanna Piotrowska. Biennale de Lyon.
- 9.Joanna Piotrowska. bb10.berlinbiennale.de.
- 10.Woodward, Daisy. The Talented Photographer Using Gesture to Empower Women. AnOther.
- 11.Winner: FROWST by Joanna Piotrowska. First Book Award.
- 12.Winners of the Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 2015 announced. Photoworks.
- 13.Fedorova, Anastasiia. Black and White Photos That Show the Disturbing Side of Being a Teenage Girl. Broadly.
- 14.Lesser, Casey. 15 Artists to Watch at SP-Arte. Artsy.
- 15.Joanna Piotrowska: FROWST. Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki.
- 16.Our Red Sky.
- 17.Joanna Piotrowska. kestnergesellschaft.de.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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