Alicja Kwade

Space as question

Alicja Kwade is a Polish-born artist based in Berlin whose work uses everyday objects—stones, clocks, furniture, bicycles, mirrors—to question how reality is organized and agreed upon. By doubling, rotating, or reconfiguring these elements, she exposes the conventions that underpin our sense of time, value, and material stability.

Her sculptures often stage encounters between raw matter and refined instruments: rough boulders paired with polished metal frames, clock faces stretched or multiplied, mirror planes shifting perspectives. These juxtapositions give physical form to abstract questions drawn from physics, philosophy, and economics.

Repetition and transformation are key methods. A single object may appear in several states at once—cast in different materials, positioned along a curve, or aligned so that it seems to pass through space and time. The works feel precise yet speculative, like models for alternate realities.

Installations frequently engage architecture, using corridors, plazas, or façades as stages for subtle distortions. Viewers become part of the system, their movements and reflections folded into the work’s shifting geometry.

Through exhibitions at museums and biennials, Kwade has developed a recognizable language that remains open to new configurations. Her practice demonstrates how rigorous conceptual interests can be translated into tactile, spatial experiences that invite both intuition and critical thought.

Alicja Kwade is a Polish-born artist based in Berlin, known for sculptures and installations that use everyday objects, mirrors, and clocks to question perception, value, and systems of measurement. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally.

Alicja Kwade is a Polish-born, Berlin-based artist whose sculptures and installations use objects like stones, clocks, and mirrors to probe systems of time, value, and perception. Her conceptually driven works have been shown in major museums and international exhibitions.

In Observatory