Alicja Biała is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, installation, and printmaking. Moving between intimate and architectural scales, her work explores how environmental, political, and personal histories are embedded in materials, surfaces, and landscapes.
Initially known for her large-scale public paintings and the politically charged Polish Cut-Out series, Biała has since developed a practice that ranges from public installations and sculptural lighting to etchings, paintings, and metal-based works. Her projects are often shaped by scientific research, material processes, and an interest in how ecological crisis can be translated into physical form.
In recent years, she has developed experimental techniques that incorporate mining waste, tailings, and other industrial residues into printmaking and metal surfaces. Through abrasion, corrosion, staining, and reflection, these materials become active participants in the work, allowing each piece to register processes of exposure, transformation, and time.
Biała graduated from The Royal Drawing School and holds a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in London. Her work has received widespread press, multiple awards, and is held in private and public collections.
CONTACT: ab@alicjabiala.com / @alicjabiala
EDUCATION
Master of Arts, Royal College of Art, London, UK — 2017–2018, 2021–2022
The Drawing Year, postgraduate-level drawing programme, Royal Drawing School, London, UK — 2021–2022
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Raw Earth, Rare Earth, Berntson Bhattacharjee, London, UK
Acid Bite, Royal Drawing School, London, UK
2024 acid pond (zatruty staw), Museum of Contemporary Art, Kraków, Poland
2023 this is indeed a wonderful country, Galerie Hussenot, Paris, France
2022 Riding Through Onion Fields, Szydłowski Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Beneath the Soft Ground, Hard Ground, Incubator, London
Pająki, Bałtycka Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, Słupsk, Poland
2019 Polska (Wycinanki Polskie), Galeria R+, Akademia Sztuki, Szczecin, Poland
2018 Polska (Wycinanki Polskie), Leica Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
Wycinanki Polskie, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Poland
Wycinanki Polskie, Galeria Ego, Poznan, Poland
Selected Public Art, Murals & Architectural Commissions
2025 Pamięci lip (site-specific outdoor installation), Narracje #16, Instytut Kultury Miejskiej & Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdańsk, Poland
Beneath the Soft Ground, Hard Ground (installation), Europa Building, Council of the European Union, Brussels, Belgium
2024 The Witch of Chwaliszewo (sculpture), Poznań, Poland
2022 Merersyde Totemy (sculpture), Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK
2021 Forest of Dean Totems (sculpture), The Forest of Dean Sculpture Park, Bristol, UK
Totems (sculpture), Copenhagen, Denmark
2020 Aveiro Totems (sculpture), Aveiro, Portugal
Witches (mural), Águeda, Portugal
Concordia Design Wrocław (500 square meter paintings, pająk and lobby), Wrocław, PL
2018 Ciekawość (mural), Poznań, Poland
2019 Totemy (sculpture), Poznań, Poland
2017 Mexico Dances (mural), Mexico City, Mexico
Unknown (mural), Kassel, Germany
2016 Cykliści, mural, Warsaw, Poland
Widows and Widowers, mural, Águeda, Portugal
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Lot’s Wife, Bo Lee and Workman, Somerset, UK
Rewilding: the Breath of Creeping Shadows, BWA Warszawa, Poland
Las Palabras, Somers Gallery, London, UK
Medium Rare, Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery, London, UK
2024 Mind to hand, Incubator, London, UK
Nie pytaj o Polskę, CSW, Toruń, Poland
Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs, Hastings Contemporary, London, UK
Let’s make miłość, Miłość Gallery, London
Utopia, Incubator, London, UK
Opowieść z Dna Studni, Borowik Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
Soil Horizon, Kirki, Sifnos, Greece
Food in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, Poland
Malcriadas, Her Clique, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 Refugees Welcome, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland
Nay, her foot speaks, Cooke Latham Gallery, London, UK
When the heart of a pig has hardened, dice it small, Kirki projects, Tinos, Greece
The Poet’s Folly and the Sovereign’s Hand, Wehrmuehle Museum, Germany
2022 Royal Drawing School: Best of the Drawing Year 2021-22, Christie’s, London, UK
Collage – klejone światy, Pawilon Czterech Kopuł, Muzem Narodowe, Wrocław, Poland
2018 Envisage the Collage, Galeria Biała, Lublin, Poland
2017 Polki, Patriotki, Rebeliantki, Arsenal Gallery, Poznan, Poland
ART RESIDENCIES
2025 The Arctic Circle – Artist & Scientist Residency Program
2024 The Versailles-Giverny Foundation at the Home and Gardens of Claude Monet
2023 Dumfries House Residency, RDS, Scotland
2022 Moritz-Heyman Residency at Pignano, The Royal Drawing School, Tuscany, Italy
2021 Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art (BGSW), Ustka, Poland
2020–21 AGA LAB, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology, California, US
SELECTED AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Berek Trust, The Royal College of Art, MA Tuition Scholarship
The Drawing Year, The Royal Drawing School, Full Scholarship
Claus Michaletz Prize for Eastern European Art, Berlin Art Fair
Stypendium z Funduszu Popierania Twórczości ZAiKS 2022
Fundusz Stypendialny Talenty.
