“Painting is my way of exploring identity, emotion, and meaning through colour, form, and pattern—transforming observation and experience into visual language.”
Aleksandra Kalisz (b. 1992, Gdynia, Poland) is a Polish visual artist and researcher based in Porto, Portugal.
She holds a Master in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk (2016) and PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Porto (2025), where her research examined representations of femininity in contemporary visual arts. Her doctoral work adopted a multidisciplinary approach, combining psychology, art history, and cultural theory, with a focus on women’s rights, colonialism and post-colonialism, feminism and post-feminism, and anthropology.
Kalisz collaborates with various art and cultural magazines, contributing both visually and theoretically to ongoing discussions about gender, identity, and representation in art.
Her practice encompasses painting, drawing, installation, and textiles. Through these media, she explores themes of femininity and cultural symbolism. Influenced by Eastern and Western decorative traditions, her work investigates the relationship between body, pattern, and objects, reflecting on identity and gender.
“Her paintings stem from photography. She doesn’t represent the scenes captured in the pictures, but rather interprets them and mediates on visual perception. The artist draws parallels with her evident use of camera as she frames a picture, composes a frame, drapes and embellishes. She toys with the optics, restores the image out of thousands kaleidoscopic fragments.”
Anna Krolikiewicz
Kalisz has exhibited widely in Poland and internationally, with solo and group shows including Notions of Women (Porto, 2025), UN/COVERED (Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun, 2018), Act of Pattern (Gdansk, 2016), NordArt (Germany, 2017 & 2019), and Painting Today (European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, 2019). She has completed artist residencies in Portugal and Morocco, and her works are part of private and institutional collections, including the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun.
Her artistic achievements have been acknowledged with several awards, including a nomination for Diplôme de Médaillle de Vermeil of Académie des Arts Sciences et Lettres, and distinctions at ModPortrait 2021, the Biafarin Award at NordArt 2019, including an award from the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun at Promotions 2016.
solo exhibitions
2025 Notions of Women, Museu FBAUP, Porto, Portugal
2018UN/COVERED, Centre of Contemporary Art, Toruń, Poland
2022Fresta, Fenda ou Ruído, Casa-Museu Abel Salazar, Porto, Portugal Vente aux enchères caritative, Le Lions Club de Saint-Mandé, Saint-Mandé, France
2021Beauton Art Exhibition, Olsson Møbler, Copenhague, Denmark X Bienal de Pintura de Pequeno Formato- Premio Joaquim Afonso Madeira, finalists exhibition, Fábrica de Artes Visuais e Ofícios, Alhos Vedros, Portugal CONTEMPLATING TREES OUTSIDE FROM INSIDE THE ACADEMY, CAAA, Guimarães
2020 revolver, Casa das Artes, Porto Os seres que nunca fomos, desCONFI(n)AR, Guimarães, Portugal Mos(n)tra, Astronauta, Guimarães O avesso do avesso do avesso [do avesso], FBAUP, Porto The Creator and The Muse, 33 Contemporary, Chicago, USA
2019 Outing!, Center of Contemporary Art in Toruń, Toruń NordArt 2019, Kunstwerk, Budelsdorf, Germany Trees Outside the Academy #3, CAAA, Guimarães Painting Today, European Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain
2017 Sarto | Grøngaard | Kalisz, Beauton Art Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Gentse Feesten, VLASK Art Gallery, Ghent, Belgium Metamorphosis, The City Gallery, Wrocław, Poland NordArt 2017, Kunstwerk, Budelsdorf, Germany Young Painting in Gdańsk, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk A1 Łódź- Gdańsk, ASP in Łódź, Łódź, Poland
2016Gdańsk Biennale 2016, Gdańsk Gallery of Art, Gdańsk Art.box Project, Miami Art Week, Miami, USA Promotions, finalists’ exhibition, Legnica Gallery, Legnica, Poland Ale sztuka!, finalists’ exhibition, Kolonia Artystów, Gdańsk
2015 Here and There, Bottlerbush Gallery, Harmony, USA Everything/ nothing, Academy of Fine Arts, Gdańsk
