About me

Marta Janik is a versatile artist, working primarily in the mediums of analog and digital collage. She is also a skilled illustrator, linoprint maker, animator and workshop facilitator. At times she also incorporates elements of clowning and live performance into her art practice. She has graduated with a Master’s Degree in Literature (Polish Studies) from the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, and a qualification in computer graphics from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Cracow. She is also a recent graduate of the first edition of the Ecopoetics School at the Institute of Reportage in Warsaw.

She was born in Bydgoszcz, grew up in Cracow, and currently lives and bases her practice in Warsaw. She has also previously lived in Berlin for seven years, where, among other things, she worked as a guide at the Salvador Dali Museum, learned tap-dancing and went roller-skating. She has exhibited throughout Poland, Europe and in the United States, her work has featured in many publications, and she has often been selected by the Kolaj Institute of New Orleans to take part in their projects, exhibitions and programmes. Her works have been featured in many international publications, and she has facilitated workshops in various countries. Some time ago, she created the famous Baba with Fish, which has been roaming the world ever since; and Marta herself is well travelled, she speaks Polish, English and German. She is interested in surrealism, kitsch, the circus, mushrooms and whales.

Exhibitions:

2024: “Ikebana” collage exhibition, Pequeña Galería, Gobernador 6, Madrid, Spain
2023: “Freedom” exhibition during CutOut Collage Festival, Paris-Kyiv, The Gallery Le Bonheur, Rue Amelot 72, Paris, France
2023: “Commuovere (ko’mːwɔvere)” at Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival : Birr Theatre & Arts Centre, Oxmantown Hall, Townparks, Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland
2023: “Dance in collages”, International Jazz Dance Festival, House of Music, Pardubice, Czech Republic
2023: Gedeon-Richter Art Calendar Exhibition, curated by Andrzej Pągowski, Kubicki Arcades, Royal Castle, Warsaw, Poland
2022-2023: „Artists in the Archive: Community”, The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, Vermont, USA
2022: „Migracje/Migration”, Birr Vintage Week And Arts Festival, Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland
2022: „Empty Columns are a Place to Dream”, Kolaj Live: Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
2021: „Empty Columns are a Place to Dream”, Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival – Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland
2019: Collage exhibition, Chorzowskie Centrum Kultury (the Chorzów Culture Center), Poland
2019: Collagistas Festival # 6 – Maison du Peuple de Saint-Gilles, Parvis Saint Gilles 39, 1060 Saint-Gilles, Brussels, Belgium
2019: „Język kolażu/Collage Language”, Dom Kultury “Praga”, Warsaw, Poland
2018: KAOS – International Collage Festival, Kranj, Slovenia
2018: Little Window Galerie, Pankow, Berlin, Germany
2018: Collagistas Festival # 5 – Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland
2017: Collagistas Festival # 4 – La Stecca Gallery, Via G. De Castillia 26, 20124, Milan, Italy
2017: „Marvelous”, The International Exhibition of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, California, USA
2016: 1st National Art Contest COLLAGE- ASSEMBLAGE (post-competition exhibition) – Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych, Olkusz, Poland

Residencies:

2024: Art Residency at Áras Éanna Art Centre,  Inis Oírr, Aran Islands, Ireland (October)
2023: Collage & Illustration – Frankenstien / The Modern Prometheus: (Online) With the Kolaj Institute, 3718 Saint Claude Avenue, New Orleans, USA

Publications:

2024: Maintenant #18 Magazine, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, Three Rooms Press, New York (collage)
2024: Stolica Literatury (Capital of Literature), Magazine of the 17th Warsaw Prize for Literature, Museum of Caricature, Warsaw, Poland
2023: Maintenant #17 Magazine, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, Three Rooms Press, New York (collage)
2022: The book „Artists in the Archives”, Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Stewart-Swift Research Center, Ric Kasini Kadour, USA
2022: The book „Empty columns are a place to dream”, Kolaj and Maison Kasini/ Kasini House, USA
2022: Kolaj Magazine #34, A magazine about contemporary collage, together with Anthony D. Kelly (the article „Monumental Dreams” about „Empty Columns Are A Place To Dream” project + collages)
2022: Maintenant #15 Magazine, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, Three Rooms Press, New York (collage)
2021: Maintenant #14 Magazine, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, Three Rooms Press, New York (collage)
2020: Kolaj Magazine #29, A magazine about contemporary collage, “Collage Language – Report from Warsaw” (an article + collages)
2019: Jerzy Jarzębski “Cities, things, spaces”, słowo/obraz terytoria – the book features three collages starring Bruno Schulz
2018: Maintenant #11 Magazine, A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art, Three Rooms Press, New York (collage)
2018: „Przekrój” Magazine, summer 2018, numer 7 (3562) (collages), Poland
2018: „Przekrój” Magazine, spring 2018, numer 6 (3561) (collages), Poland

Awards:

2021: The National Heritage Council County Award for “Empty Columns are a Place To Dream”, Birr, County Offaly, Ireland
2020: “Język kolażu/Collage Language” project – Warsaw Cultural Education Award 2020, 1st place in the “Cultural Institutions” category, Dom Kultury “Praga”, Warsaw, Poland

Collections:

2022: “Artists in the Archive: Community”: work acquired as part of a limited edition folio of prints collected by and housed at The Henry Sheldon Museum 1 Park St, Middlebury, Vermont, United States
2022: “Artists in the Archive: Community”: work acquired as part of a limited edition folio of prints collected by and housed at The Kolaj Institute, c/o Kasini House, PO Box 1025, Burlington, Vermont, United States

Workshops:

2024: “Postcard Mix of Hits” – commercial collage workshop, Warszawa Antique Bookshop, Warsaw, Poland
2023: “We are collage” – collage workshop for “Partners” Support Centre, as part of educational offer of the Museum of Caricature, Warsaw, Poland
2023: “Storm Before Silence” – family workshop inspired by the poetry of Wisława Szymborska, as part of the “Women’s Patriotism” project, Jan Twardowski Public Library in the Praga-Północ District, Warsaw, Poland
2023: “Wonderful” – commercial collage workshop with Anthony D. Kelly celebrating World Collage Day, Z10.Studio, Warsaw, Poland
2023: “Hi hi histories” – Lengrenówka, Museum of Caricature, Warsaw, Poland, The Long Night Of Museums 2023, World Collage Day
2023: “We are collage” – Museum of Caricature in Warsaw, as part of the “Master workshops” – educational offer for schools
2022: “The farther into the forest, the more gold” – Intergenerational collage workshops in Milanówek as part of the “Trees more precious than gold” project, Poland
2022: “Let’s dance” – Intergenerational collage workshops during “New Reality” Collage Festival in Cappoquin, Ireland (together with Una Gildea)
2022: “Migracje/Migration” – Intergenerational collage workshops during Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival, Workshop accompanying the exhibition “Migration/Migration” (together with Anthony D. Kelly), Ireland
2021: “Coolage” – commercial collage workshop for adults in Zakładka Antique Bookshop, Warsaw, Poland
2021: “Empty columns are a place to dream” – Intergenerational collage workshops during Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival (Ireland), at the invitation of Arts Council Ireland
2019: “Collage Language” – Intergenerational collage workshops as part of the “Język kolażu/Collage Language” project (The project was a winner and received the Warsaw Cultural Education Award 2020, 1st place in the “Cultural Institutions” category), Dom Kultury “Praga”, Warsaw, Poland

Curatorial activity:

2022: Curator of the exhibition “Migration/Migration” presented at the Birr Arts Festival in Birr, Ireland and at the Konopacki Palace in the Praga-Północ district of Warsaw. 13 collage artists from different countries around the world were asked to make a collage on the theme of migration and share their migration experiences.

Clients:

Music Band Andre, Andrzej Marcysiak
City of Warsaw (Warsaw City Literary Award)
Monika Palikot Fashion
Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant, Disney Springs, Florida, USA
“Partners” Support Centre, Warsaw, Poland
Publishing House Oficyna Związek Otwarty, Poland
Museum of Caricature, Warsaw, Poland
Mazovian Institute of Culture (Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury), Poland
Faction Collective, Dublin, Ireland
Forbes Street Restaurant in Anantara Marker Hotel, 5* hotel in Dublin, Ireland (chef Gareth Mullins)
Andrzej Pągowski, KreacjaPRO, Warsaw, Poland
Jan Twardowski Public Library (Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Jana Twardowskiego), Praga-Północ, Warsaw, Poland
Sony Music Entertainment Poland
Musszelka Foundation in Milanówek, Poland
Arts Council Ireland, Birr Vintage & Art Festival, Ireland
Kasini House, Ric Kasini Kadour, Kolaj Magazine, Vermont, USA
Towarzystwo Krajoznawcze Krajobraz (the Krajobraz Sightseeing Society), Warsaw, Poland
Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, Cracow, Poland
Muzeum Miejskie in Żory (Municipal Museum in Żory), Poland
Dom Kultury “Praga” Community Arts & Cultural Centre, Warsaw, Poland
Laznia Nowa Theater, Cracow, Poland