KASIA OLEŚKIEWICZ

visual artist & researcher

BIO

Kasia Oleśkiewicz (she/her) (b. 1998 in Koszalin, Poland) is a visual artist, researcher, art historian, activist, vegan.
Her work employs artistic research methodology, merging visual arts with theory. Oleśkiewicz's practice centers on the concept of the "animal"—which she continuously explores, undermines, reclaims, and redefines.
Currently she lives and works internationally, primarily traveling between Bern (CH), Edinburgh (SC), and the Polish west coast.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice takes the form of artistic research: I combine visual arts – mainly drawing, sculpture and painting – with theoretical work, writing, developing concepts and methods, collecting existing cultural texts.
In this research, I focus on issues and forms of the body – its sentience, pain, vulnerability to abuse, violence and control, the inherent position of the body a “given over to another”, as described by Judith Butler.
On this path, I have been guided by the animal.
At the core of my work, there is a deep belief in the urgency of extending our compassion to more than human beings.
In the reality of multiple crises - environmental, political, social, cultural, personal - we see a pressing need to reevaluate our perspectives and priorities. However, such reflections too rarely go beyond human lives. My artistic research seeks to address this gap, examining how protection can be reimagined through the lens of intersectional critical animal studies.
My passion for these theories, which see human and nonhuman issues as interconnected, makes me work with hybrid forms - creating situations in which the binary identification of bodies (as species, race, nationality or gender) is no longer relevant.
I use the term “animal” as referred to all sentient beings. Applying this word solely to nonhuman animals or insults (as its most commonly used) legitimises discrimination.
I reclaim animality as a hyper-positive term. I view it as an inspiration, both on social and personal levels. Through its prism, I imagine alternative cultural models, in which we not only stop harming “others”. Self-identification as an animal allows us to get closer to our own sensitivity, to live in touch with our senses, to shed the taboos surrounding the body and its nature, such as illnesses, ageing, dying.
I see this search for my own animality as an invitation to a more shameless life, untamed from standards, expectations or roles - for example those related to gender.

education

2026 Internship, Tique publication on contemporary art & art space for books, Antwerp, Belgium2024/2025 Pre-Doc Programme, Hochschule der Künste, Bern, Switzerland2023-2024 MA Contemporary Arts Practice, Hochschule der Künste, Bern, Switzerland2018 – 2025 MA Sculpture (integrated Master), Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Poland2019 – 2022 BA History of Art (with honours), University of Warsaw, Poland2023 Course "Queer Art and Queer Curating", Node Center, Berlin, Germany2021/2022 Fine Arts (Erasmus programme), Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, Italy2014-2018 Fine Arts High School, Koszalin, Poland

selected shows & events

SOLO SHOWS
2026 | Any Body Home, part of Catalyst: Art as Activism, War Memorial Gallery, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland; supported by: Creative Scotland, Hugo Burge Foundation
2025 | Cabinet of Animalities, mobile gallery Guerrier avec Gerrie, Warsaw, Poland; part of Fringe Warsaw 2025
2025 | Animal Gaze, Das kleine Kunsthaus, Bern, Switzerland; supported by: Culture & Animals Foundation, Kanton Bern, Burgergemeinde Bern
2025 | Manifestos for Regaining Space, St Margaret’s House, Edinburgh, Scotland; supported by: Scot-Art, Hugo Burge Foundation, Summerhall Arts
2024 | Broken Beasts, Schlachthof Kulturzentrum, Biel, SwitzerlandRESIDENCIES
2024 | Hugo Burge Foundation, Marchmont Estate, Scotland; organized by the Hugo Burge Foundation and Summerhall
2024 | Houtkust Studios, Houthem St Gerlach, Netherlands; organized by Ri-Jeanne and Noelle CuppensGRANTS & AWARDS (selection)
2024 | Culture & Animals Foundation Grant
2019, 2020 | Rector’s Scholarship, Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland
2018 | Ministry of Culture’s Scholarship, Warsaw, Poland
2018 | 2nd award, photography contest Young People in the 21st century, Kaunas, Lithuania
2017 | 1st award in Macroregional & 2nd award in National Review of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, organized by Centre for Art Education, Warsaw, Poland (award providing a free entry to any art university in Poland)PRESENTATIONS & WORKSHOPS
2026 | Creative drawing workshop, accompanying the solo exhibition Any Body Home, Summerhall, Edinburgh, Scotland
2024 | Nonhuman Commemoration - concept presentation, Anthrozoology as International Practice conference, University of Exeter (online)
2023 | Artist talk, Frei Pass, Bern, Switzerland
2022 | Nonhuman Commemoration - concept presentation, Ecocide/Speciesism symposium (international, online)COMMISSIONS (selection)
2023 | Digging - long-duration performance and land art sculpture, Zehendermätteli, Bern, Swizerland (with: Cyril Dériaz, Job Griffijn, Nadja Karpinskaya, Emmet Ward)
2023 | DEMOcrazy - sound installation, Pakt & IRMA Transdisciplinary Festival, IRMA Republic, Bern, Switzerland (with Alessandro Rolandi, Philipp Zürcher)
2020 | Monument to Animal Rights - designing a future monument for the action Poland 2060 organized by Organizacje społeczne. To działa!, projected at Nowy Theatre and other locations in Warsaw, PolandGROUP SHOWS (selection)
2025 | Op Blote Voeten Festival, Landbouwbelang, Maastricht, Netherlands
2024 | Group show accompanying the anti-fur movie premier of Open Cages Poland, Kinoteka, Warsaw, Poland
2023 | Achilles and the Turtle, University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland
2023 | Pakt & IRMA Transdisciplinary Festival, IRMA Republic, Bern, Switzerland
2023 | Metafizyka i Plotki, Alina Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
2022 | Existence/Resistance (online) organized by Fusion Art Center in Padua as part of the international conference "The Emergence of the Animal in the Contemporary World: Trust and Distrust in Times of Crisis" initiated by the Simon Bolivar Andean University in Quito, Ecuador and the University of Wuppertal, Germany
2022 | Najpierw masa, potem rzeźba, Czapski Palace, Warsaw, Poland
2022 | Lasciare un segno, Ricognizioni Gallery, Palazzo Chigi, Formello, Italy
2018 | Young People in the 21st century, Acropolis Centre, Kaunas, Lithuania
2018 | Diplomas, CK 105, Koszalin, PolandPRESS (selection)
2026 | https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/catalyst-art-as-activism-summerhall-arts-edinburgh
2026 | https://veganfeministnetwork.com/kasia-oleskiewicz-exhibition-any-body-home/
2026|https://www.facebook.com/DariuszGzyra/posts/sentiocen-w-edynburgu-jak-najbardziej-do-29-marca-w-war-memorial-gallery-będzie-/1584676933663301/
2026 | https://list.co.uk/news/art-as-activism-to-be-explored-in-summerhall-arts-new-batch-of-solo-exhibitions-47792
2026 | https://www.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/167699-catalyst:-art-as-activism---any-body-home/
2026 | https://www.artrabbit.com/events/any-body-home-summerhall
2026 | https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/s2837412_curating-2025-2026sem2/2026/02/08/summerhall-exhibition-series-catalyst-art-as-activism-a-viewing-record/
2026 | https://artmag.co.uk/for-the-hearts-in-exile-at-summerhall-arts-edinburgh/
2025 | https://tique.art/interviews/artistic-research/kasia-oleskiewicz-manifestos-for-regaining-space/
2025 | https://cultureandanimals.org/the-naked-philosopher-encounters-the-gaze-of-his-cat/

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