Grzegorz Stefański (he/him), born in 1983, is a Polish artist-filmmaker currently based in London.
His transition into the arts came later than is typical. After earning a Master’s degree in philosophy, he worked as a jazz radio host and designer before studying art under Mirosław Bałka at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He completed an MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2018.
He works with multi- and single-screen cinematic installations and photography, exploring mental health, post-patriarchal masculinities, familial dynamics, memory, and repetition. Influenced by phenomenology and performance, his practice sits at the intersection of choreography, psychology, and film, focusing on gesture, embodiment, and identity.
He won the Ivan Juritz Prize and the Grand Prix at the Biennale of Young Art in 2017. In 2018 his work was awarded at the 13th Busan International Video Art Festival and nominated for the Kenneth Armitage Foundation Award and the CCA Ujazdowski Castle Project Room Awards. He received the Stuart Croft Foundation Award in 2020 and an Imperial War Museum commission in 2024.
His works have been exhibited and screened at the Louvre Museum (2019), HKW Berlin (2019), the Whitechapel Gallery (2018), the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2018), Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (2018), and Manifesta 11 in Zurich (2016).
He is currently developing the third and final part of an art-film triptych exploring psychological growth and relational dynamics, supported by Tokyo Arts and Space, the Imperial War Museum, and the Stuart Croft Foundation. He also continues his infrared video and photography series sleepers as part of his ongoing research into masculinity.
stefanskigrzegorz[at]gmail.com
Education
2018 MA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
2016 Masters in Miroslaw Balka Studio of Spatial Activities, Academy of Art, Warsaw, PL
2008 Masters in Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, PL
Solo Presentations
2024 locusts, Brickworks Museum, Southampton, GB
2023 Paride, Decameron, Tokyo, JP
2022 sleeper, TICK TACK, Antwerp, BE
2018 spill, part of CCA Ujazdowski Castle Project Room Award, Warsaw, PL
2018 the third pier, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ustka, PL
2017 choke, L’étrangère Gallery, London, UK
Awards
2020 Stuart Croft Foundation Award, London, UK ((Jury members: Sam Belinfante, Steven Eastwood, Gilly Fox)
2018 The 13th Busan International Video Art Festival, Busan, KR
2017 Ivan Juritz Prize, London, UK (Jury members: Dexter Dalwood, Julian Forrester, Rachel Cusk)
2017 Grand Prix at The Biennale of Young Art, Ustka, PL
Residencies
2023 Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), Tokyo, JP
2018 Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Ustka, PL
2017 Cove Park, Scotland, UK
2017 The National Museum, Warsaw, PL
2015 Apollonia Foundation, Strasburg, FR
Group Exhibitions & Screenings
2025
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK
Koppel Project, symposium and screening, London, UK
Cinéma le Gyptis, screening, Marseille, FR
2024
Les Instants Vidéo, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR Wanda gallery, Warsaw, PL
2023
As Above, So Below, Tokyo Art and Space HONGO, Tokyo, JP
2019
SAA|VAS Open, Royal Scottich Academy, Edinburgh, UK
Les Instants Vidéo, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR
Stable, Sarabande Foundation, London, UK
NAE Open, New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
Footnote12: No Medium, Exhibitions Bureau, curated by Barbara Piwowarska Warsaw, PL
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, curated by Jean-François Rettig and Nathalie Hénon, The Louvre Museum, Paris, FR and HKW Berlin, DE
2018
Can you feel it?, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cracow, PL
Narracje #10, Gdańsk, PL
The 13th Busan International Video Art Festival, Busan, KR
Departament of Presence, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL
Open Screenings, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2017
Young Art Biennale Fish Eye 9, Ustka, PL
Brave or Stupid, performance, Morskie Oko Park, Warsaw, PL
15th SURVIVAL Art Review, Wrocław, PL
Have You Seen This Women, Chalton Gallery, London, UK
Authentic Tongues, Bloomsbury Theatre, London, UK
2016
Work Work Work, Leipzigerstrasse 63 – Berlin / Marszałkowska street 19, Warsaw, PL
Visual Spa, Blue Tower, Warsaw, PL
Is There Somewhere?, Manifesta 11, Zyrych, CH
Studio for Students: Video Art Now, Studio Gallery, Warsaw, PL
Short Waves Festival, screening, Poznań, PL
Wola Warm+Up, Wola Museum, Warsaw, PL