Maria Loboda, born in 1979 in Krakow, Poland, composes installations and sculptures to investigate cultural codes, represented by pictorial signs and the grammar of various materials and objects. Throughout her work, Loboda engages with the historical narratives attributed to certain objects and juxtaposes them with contemporary interpretations and modern references in order to address the transformation of meaning of objects and images, tracing their paths from conveyance to encounter. Her research stems from the fields of poetry and history and leads to a formal equation of language and materiality, whose interactions she examines and uses in order to question what they express beyond their common readings. Thus, through the deconstruction and reorganization of common forms and symbols, Loboda has become a unique voice in what is described as contemporary archaeology. As a kind of re-enacting of semiotics, Loboda’s works are subversive as well as critical towards power structures.

Maria Loboda studied at the renowned Städelschule in Frankfurt a.M., where she was a student of Mark Leckey from 2003 to 2008. In 2020/2021 she was a guest lecturer at the Intermedia Department of the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in  Poznan, Poland. From 2015 to 2016, she taught as a guest lecturer at Hochschule der Bildenden Künste, Zurich. She is the first awardee of the Otilie Roederstein Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture in Hessia in 2022. She also was one of the artistic leaders to Volcano Extravaganza 2019. In 2012, she received the Edward Steichen Award, comprised of a six-month residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York City. In the same year she also participated in the International Residency at Les Recollets in Paris. She received a scholarship of the Hessian Cultural Foundation for London in 2009/2010 as well as a scholarship of the Cultural Foundation of Dresdner Bank in 2010. Loboda’s wide-ranging exhibition activities encompass Art Basel Parcours (2022), the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), Taipei Biennial (2014), and documenta 13 (2012). Important solo exhibitions include Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a.M. (2018/19), Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2019), Kunsthalle Basel (2017), Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne (2017), The Power Plant, Toronto (2016), and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012). Furthermore, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Contemporary Art Center, Singapore (2018), MADRE, Naples (2018), Modern Art Oxford (2016), Sprengel Museum Hannover (2015), Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2015), Ludlow 38, New York (2012), MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst (2010). Loboda lives and works in Berlin and Krakow.

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