Miroslaw Balka was born in 1958 in Warsaw, Poland. He lives and works in Warsaw and Otwock, Poland.

Comprising installation, sculpture and video, Balka’s work has a bare and elegiac quality that is underlined by the careful, minimalist placement of objects, as well as the gaps and pauses between them. Often using his own body and his studio as a template or first point of reference, Balka’s work might incorporate personal or self-referential substances such as ash, felt, salt, hair and soap. Balka’s work deals with both personal and collective memories, especially as they relate to his Catholic upbringing and the collective experience of Poland’s fractured history. Through this investigation of domestic memories and public catastrophe, Balka explores how subjective traumas are translated into collective histories and vice versa. His materials are simple, everyday objects and things, often powerfully resonant of ritual, hidden memories and the history of Nazi occupation in Poland.

Solo exhibitions include: 30/5780, Galeria Labirynt 2, Lublin (2019); [(.;,:?!–...)], Muzeum Śląskie, Katowice; DIE SPUREN, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2017); CROSSOVER/S, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2017); Nerve.Construction, Muzeum of Art MS1, Lodz (2015); Fragment, Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin and CCA Warsaw (2011); Between Honey & Ashes, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2011); Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid (2010); Modern Art Oxford, Oxford and Tate Modern, London (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Rijeka and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2007); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Strasbourg (2004); Dundee Contemporary Arts, Scotland (2002); Kroller - Muller Museum, Otterlo (2001); and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuelle Kunst (SMAK), Gent (2001).

Balka has also taken part in a number of group shows, such as: A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, Muzeum Susch, Susch (2019); Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, (2018); Rainbow in the dark, SALT Galata, Istanbul (2015); As you can see: Polish Art Today, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014); Ostalgia, The New Museum, New York; Building Memory, CCA, Tel Aviv, HMK, Dortmund and Museum Sztuki, Lodz (2010), Contemporary Art Centre, Vilinius (2009); SITE Santa Fe 6th Biennale, New Mexico (2006); the Sydney Biennale (2006); Venice Biennale (2013, 2005, 2003, 1993 and 1990) and Documenta IX (1992).