The work of Polish artist Paulina Olowska considers the multiple histories of Modernism, with a particular focus on its intersecting manifestations in Eastern Europe and the West. Working in various media, including painting, performance, installation, collage, textiles, and music, she points to the utopian undertones of Modernism, and emphasizes moments of cross-cultural exchange between East and West, disrupting assumptions of the sharp divide between the two.

In the series Applied Fantastic, employing a term coined by the Polish writer Leopold Tyrmand in 1954 to describe the improvised, DIY appropriations of Western fashion typical in Poland under communism, Olowska created paintings and knitted sweaters based on postcards of popular knitting patterns from the period, used by women in Poland to create their own versions of styles popularized in American and Western European magazines. Similarly, in the series Mother 200, she considers the idea of the “mother” as a female archetype, creating paintings that reference the work of female artists that have inspired her, such as Pauline Boty, Zofia Styrenska, Alice Neel, and Alina Szapocznikow, as well as images drawn from fashion and popular culture.

Olowska’s work has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions, including solo shows at the Foksal Gallery in Warsaw, the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. She has also participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and the Tate Modern, among many others, and was included in the 5th Berlin Biennial (2008), the 9th Istanbul Biennale (2005), and the 50th Venice Biennale (2003).