• Spike: 'Mikołaj Sobczak at Salzburger Kunstverein' Annalise June Kamegawa, 16 July 2025 Can history painting survive 2025? In Sobczak’s hallucinatory...

    Spike: "Mikołaj Sobczak at Salzburger Kunstverein"

     

    Annalise June Kamegawa, 16 July 2025

     

    Can history painting survive 2025? In Sobczak’s hallucinatory canvases, it glitches into view, caught between the mythic and the meme.

     

    To read the review, click here.

     

     

  • Mikołaj Sobczak, Alex, 2024

    Mikołaj Sobczak

    Alex, 2024
    In collaboration with Tom Alon
    Oil, print on wood, disassembled metal stand
    250 x 122 x 100 cm
    98.4 x 48 x 39.4 inches
  • Installation view, 'Familiar Strangers. The Eastern Europeans from a Polish Perspective', Bozar, Centre for the Fine Arts Brussels, 2025. Ph: BOZAR © We Document Art.
  • Mikołaj Sobczak, Daphnis, 2023

    Mikołaj Sobczak

    Daphnis, 2023
    Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
    27.5 x 38 cm
    10.8 x 15 inches
  • Mikołaj Sobczak, Witches Rights, 2023

    Mikołaj Sobczak

    Witches Rights, 2023
    Oil on canvas
    205 x 280 cm
    80.7 x 110.2 inches
  • In times of political radicalization, Sobczak's art invites us to engage with the construction of history.

     

    – Merle Radtke, Kunsthalle Münster

  • Installation view: Mikołaj Sobczak, Moon, Sun, Mercury, Salzburger Kunstverein, 2025. Photo: kunst-dokumentation
  • News
  • Works
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, MOON (PROPAGANDA), 2025
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      MOON (PROPAGANDA), 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      Signed and dated verso
      200 x 477 cm
      78.7 x 187.8 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, SUN (MAGICAL REALISM), 2025
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      SUN (MAGICAL REALISM), 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      Signed and dated verso
      200 x 477 cm
      78.7 x 187.8 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, MERCURY (UNDERGROUND), 2025
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      MERCURY (UNDERGROUND), 2025
      Acrylic on canvas
      Signed and dated verso
      200 x 477 cm
      78.7 x 187.8 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Origin of Painting (Sylvin Rubinstein and Faun), 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Origin of Painting (Sylvin Rubinstein and Faun), 2023
      Oil on canvas
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      204 x 159 cm
      80.3 x 62.6 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Dolores and Imperio, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Dolores and Imperio, 2023
      Oil on canvas
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      196 x 178 cm
      77.2 x 70.1 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Dress From A Flag, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Dress From A Flag, 2023
      Oil on canvas
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      200 x 167 cm
      78.7 x 65.7 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Eva Kotchever, 2024
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Eva Kotchever, 2024
      Oil, print on wood, disassembled metal stand
      250 x 122 x 100 cm
      98.4 x 48 x 39.4 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Vision, 2022
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Vision, 2022
      Acrylic on canvas
      220 x 960 cm
      86.6 x 378 inches

      Collection Ludwig Forum, Aachen
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Sylvin Rubinstein, 2024
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Sylvin Rubinstein, 2024
      In collaboration with Tom Alon
      Oil, print on wood, disassembled metal stand
      250 x 122 x 100 cm
      98.4 x 48 x 39.4 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Eva & Sylvin, 2024
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Eva & Sylvin, 2024
      Oil on canvas
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      180 x 198 cm
      70.9 x 78 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Iconoclasts, 2022
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Iconoclasts, 2022
      Acrylic on canvas
      227 x 212 cm
      89.4 x 83.5 inches

      Collection Moderna Museet, Stockholm
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Watch out for AIDS!, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Watch out for AIDS!, 2023
      Oil on canvas
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      197 x 152 cm
      77.6 x 59.8 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Psyche and Cupid, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Psyche and Cupid, 2023
      Oil and collage on wooden panel
      Signed and titled verso
      30 x 42 cm
      11.8 x 16.5 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Memory of the Origins of Painting, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Memory of the Origins of Painting, 2023
      Oil on wooden panel
      Signed, titled and dated verso
      37 x 23.7 cm
      14.6 x 9.3 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Origins of Painting (Theater), 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Origins of Painting (Theater), 2023
      Oil on wooden panel
      Signed and titled verso
      40.6 x 25.4 cm
      16 x 10 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Meeting Ancestors While Being On PrEP, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Meeting Ancestors While Being On PrEP, 2023
      Oil, collage on wood and glass
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      87.5 x 22.5 cm
      34.5 x 8.9 inches

      Collection The Perimeter, London
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Men are admitted but not welcome, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Men are admitted but not welcome, 2023
      Oil on canvas on cardboard
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      Image dimensions:
      46 x 33 cm / 18.1 x 13 inches
      Framed dimensions:
      49 x 39 cm / 19.3 x 15.3 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Upiór, 2022
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Upiór, 2022
      Single channel video, 16:34 min
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, It was easier to get a boy in the East, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      It was easier to get a boy in the East, 2023
      Oil, collage on aluminium
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      30.5 x 26.5 cm
      12 x 10.4 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, In A Cabaret, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      In A Cabaret, 2023
      Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      54.5 x 43.5 cm
      21.5 x 17.1 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, There was no homophobia in Paris. As there was no antisemitism, 2023
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      There was no homophobia in Paris. As there was no antisemitism, 2023
      Oil on canvas in artist’s frame
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      60 x 49.5 cm
      23.6 x 19.5 inches

      Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, It’s 10pm. Do you know where your children are?, 2019
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      It’s 10pm. Do you know where your children are?, 2019
      Performance with Nicholas Grafia
      Commissioned by Dortmunder Kunstverein
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Rooms, 2020
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Rooms, 2020
      Performance with Nicholas Grafia
      Commissioned for the VII Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2020), Zielona Góra Biennale (2020), Lubuski Theater, Poland
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Boat, 2019
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Boat, 2019
      Acrylic on canvas
      125 x 200 cm
      49.2 x 78.7 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Cafeteria, 2019
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Cafeteria, 2019
      Acrylic on canvas
      125 x 200 cm
      49.2 x 78.7 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Poem-Pipel, 2021
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Poem-Pipel, 2021
      Watercolor and ecoline on paper
      Signed and dated verso
      Paper dimensions:
      39 x 30 cm / 15.4 x 11.8 inches
      Framed dimensions :
      47 x 36.5 cm / 18.5 x 14.4 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Mars Kissing Mercury, 2022
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Mars Kissing Mercury, 2022
      Watercolor, ecoline and collage on paper
      Signed, dated and titled verso
      Paper dimensions:
      40 x 30 cm / 15.7 x 11.8 inches
      Framed dimensions:
      46.8 x 36.6 cm / 18.4 x 14.4 inches
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Cafeteria, 2021
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Cafeteria, 2021
      Watercolor on paper
      Signed, titled and dated verso
      40 x 30 cm
      15.8 x 11.8 inches

      Collection LACMA | Los Angeles County Museum of Art
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Cigarette, 2021
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Cigarette, 2021
      Watercolor on paper
      Signed, titled and dated verso
      Paper dimensions:
      40 x 30 cm / 15.8 x 11.8 inches
      Framed dimensions:
      46.8 x 36.8 cm / 18.4 x 14.5 inches

      Collection LACMA | Los Angeles County Museum of Art
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Weak Links of a Strong Chain, 2020
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Weak Links of a Strong Chain, 2020
      HD video series with Nicholas Grafia
      Commissioned by Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, Peasants, 2021
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      Peasants, 2021
      Performance with Nicholas Grafia
      Commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Accursed Ones, 2018
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Accursed Ones, 2018
      Performance with Nicholas Grafia, 30 min
      Commissioned by Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

      Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
    • Mikołaj Sobczak, The Teachers, 2020
      Mikołaj Sobczak
      The Teachers, 2020
      Ceramic
      30.5 x 30.5 x 16 cm
      12 x 12 x 6.3 inches
  • Installation view: Change to come (Group Show), Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden, 2024 – 2025
  • Exhibitions
  • External Exhibitions
  • Installation view: Mikołaj Sobczak, Le Boudoir de l'Amour, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
  • Press
  • Video
  • Biography

    Born 1989 in Poznań, Poland

    Lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany

     

    Mikołaj Sobczak works in the fields of video and painting; collaborative performative forms of expression are also an essential element of his artistic practice. Sobczak's work depicts everyday scenes as well as alternative historical images; in his surreal, collaged pictorial narratives he inserts protagonists from queer and transgender activism and countercultural emancipatory movements.
     
    Sobczak studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in Miroslaw Balka's Studio for Spatial Activities, was a scholarship holder at the Berlin University of the Arts, and graduated as a Masters student in 2019 at the Kunstakademie Münster.

     

    Mikołaj Sobczak’s recent exhibitions include Salzburger Kunstverein; Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle; Jester - Flanders Arts Institute, Genk, Belgium; Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Kunsthalle Münster; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; MUDAM, Luxembourg and Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw.

     

    Sobczak’s works are held in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-West- falen, Düsseldorf; Ludwig Forum, Aachen; The Perimeter, London; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw and The National Museum, Gdask, among others.

     

    In 2021, Sobczak was awarded Poland’s most prestigious art prize, the Paszport Polityk. He was an artist-in- residence at the Rijksakadmie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and took part in the biannual residency program with Art Explora - Cité internationale des arts in Paris. As one of four selected artists, he was recently awarded the prestigious Villa Romana Prize for the year 2026.

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