Mikołaj Sobczak
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Biography
Born 1989 in Poznań, Poland
Lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands and 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 is currently part of the group exhibition House of Nisaba: New Stories of Painting at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In June, his solo exhibition Divide and Rule will open at the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf; he will also be featured at Manifesta 16 Ruhr and at FIRE at the St. Nikolai Memorial in Hamburg. His first book, Anti-Fascist Art Manifesto, will be published in the summer of 2026. The artist will present a performance of the same title in July at the NS Documentation Center in Munich.
Mikołaj Sobczak’s recent solo exhibitions include ROZENSTRAAT, Amsterdam; Salzburger Kunstverein; Jester – Flanders Arts Institute, Genk, Belgium; and Kunsthalle Münster. His works have been shown in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Ludwig Forum, Aachen; Shedhalle, Zurich; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; MUDAM, Luxembourg; the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; the Whitechapel Gallery, London; and the Folkwang Museum, Essen. His works are included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; the Ludwig Forum, Aachen; The Perimeter, London; the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; and the National Museum in Gdańsk, among others.
In 2021, Sobczak was awarded the Paszport Polityki, Poland’s most prestigious art prize. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and participated in the Art Explora – Cité internationale des arts residency program in Paris. As one of four selected artists, he has recently been awarded
the Villa Romana Prize for 2026.
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Installation view: House of Nisaba: New Stories of Painting (Group Show), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, May 14 – August 30, 2026Mikołaj Sobczak
Parole, Parole, Parole, 2026Oil, acrylic and collage on canvas
220 x 590 cm
86.6 x 232.3 inches -
Together with a group of friends, I travelled to Capri to research queer resistance during the time of Nazi persecution, when the island functioned as a kind of refuge, almost a mythic sanctuary for queer lives.
– Mikołaj SobczakTo listen to the artist as he speaks about his work, click here.
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In times of political radicalization, Sobczak's art invites us to engage with the construction of history.
– Merle Radtke, Kunsthalle Münster
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News
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Installation view. Impossible Songs, Jester, Genk, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Jester. Ph: Van den Bussche-Vanden Bossche.
Mikołaj Sobczak
Teofil Kosiński, 2024In collaboration with Yuval Harel
Oil, print on wood, disassembled metal stand250 x 122 x 100 cm
98.4 x 48 x 39.4 inches
B-MSOBCZAK-.24-0029Further images
Recto: Teofil (Stefan) Kosiński, was born in 1925 in Toruń and lived to be 78 years old. In 1942, he was convicted under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code,...Recto: Teofil (Stefan) Kosiński, was born in 1925 in Toruń and lived to be 78 years old. In 1942, he was convicted under Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code, which penalized homosexuality, for having an affair with an Austrian soldier, Willi Götz. He was held until 1945, when he escaped from a prison near Hamburg. With Lutz van Dijk describing his memories from World War II in "Damned Strong Love: The True Story of Willi G. and Stefan K", his name and surname were revealed only after his death, having hidden the truth about himself from his family. During one of his many travels, Teofil invited Lulla La Polaca into his hotel room to show her a cross-dressing outfit made of towels. Sobczak has recreated this moment based on conversations he had with Lulla herself.
Verso: "Killing of Anabaptists" in Amsterdam from the Book of Martyrs by John Fox, 1535.Exhibitions
Mikołaj Sobczak, Le Boudoir de l'Amour, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
"Mikolaj Sobczak. Le Boudoir de L'Amour", Capitain Petzel, 2024.
"Mikolaj Sobczak. Impossible Songs", Jester | Flanders Arts Institute, Genk, 2024.ExhibitionsExternal ExhibitionsPressPublicationsVideoRequest more information




