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Nicolas Grospierre (1975) is a photographer, mainly of architecture, and an artist working in the expanded field of photography. He studied political science and sociology at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris and the London School of Economics before turning to photography. He is based in Warsaw.

His work as a photographer has focused on one hand on documentary projects, which explore the collective memory and hopes of modernist architecture, now that the utopian ideology behind it has faded away. The other side of his work focuses on conceptual photography, emphasising mind games and visual paradoxes, while presenting attractive and sensual images and even installations.

He was awarded the Golden Lion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008 (with Kobas Laksa, curators Grzegorz Piątek and Jarosław Trybuś), for the exhibition Hotel Polonia in the Polish pavilion.

His photographic publications include Modern Forms. A Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Architecture (2016), and Modern Spaces. A Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Interiors (2018), both published by Prestel Publishing, London

Education

1998-1999London School of Economics. MSc. in Russian and Post–Soviet Studies
1997-1998 Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Msc. in Political Science
1997Diploma of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris

Awards, grants, residencies

2014Grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
2012Artistic Residency at at Stadtgalerie der Progr, Bern

Polityka Passport Award
2009Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Poland
2008Artistic Residency at Location 1, NYC
Golden Lion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale for best National participation

Selected individual exhibitions

2021LCAXN, Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris
2019A Subjective Atlas of Modern Architecture, Fort Institute of Photography, Warsaw
Longue Durée (with Nelly Agassi), Pola Magnetyczne, Warsaw
2018The Best Possible City (with Fthenakis Ropee), Architekturgalerie Munchen, Munich
The City which does not exist, Peresvetov Pereulok Gallery, Moscow
2017Heliosophia, Alarcon Criado Gallery, Seville
Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz - To my dearest Mikołaj, Pola Magnetyczne Gallery, Warsaw
Modern Forms. A Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Architecture, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2016Modern Forms. A Subjective Atlas of 20th Century Architecture, Architecture Association, London
Todo Palidece Ante el Libro, Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Madrid
2015Lost in Architecture, Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Słupsk
Viewfinder, Signum Foundation, Poznan
2014A glass shard in the eye (with Olga Mokrzycka) BWA Warszawa, Warsaw
The Oval Offices, Maison de la Photographie, Lille
Typologies, Alarcon Criado Galeria, Seville
2013The Embassy, Platan Gallery, Budapest
The Oval Offices, Presidential Palace, Warsaw
The Oval Offices, State Gallery of Art, Sopot
2012Axonometria, Galeria Alarcon Criado, Seville
The Bank, Pinchuk Art Centre, Kiev
The city which does not exist, Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow
2011K-POOL i Spółka, Galeria PF, Poznań
Lost in Architecture, 1000 Plateaus Art Space, Chengdu
Modern Tales, Polish Cultural Institute, FotoEspana 2011, Madrid
One Thousand Doors, No Exit, Graham Foundation, Chicago
Paper Planes, Phase 2, ARUP, London
The Bank, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw
The picture, which grows, Fundacja Archeologia Fotografii, Warsaw
2010T A T T A R R A T T A T, Signum Foundation, Venice
The Glass Trap, site specific installation with the Raster Gallery, Warsaw
2009Kunstkamera, CCA, Warsaw
The Bank, Location 1, NYC
The Self–FulfillingImage, Cueto Project, NYC
2008Disco Zacheta (Hotel Polonia), Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw
Hotel Polonia (with K. Laksa) Polish Pavilion at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale
Hydroklinika, Ecco — Espaco Cultural Contemporaneo, Brasilia
Hydroklinika, The Artist’s House, Jerusalem
2007Biblioteka, University of Warsaw Library
Mauzoleum (with Olga Mokrzycka) with Raster Gallery, Warsaw
2006Biblioteka, In–situ exhibition with the CCA, Warsaw
2005Hydroklinika, Polish Architects Association Pavilion, Warsaw
2004Lithuanian Bus Stops, Rebell Minds Gallery, Berlin
Lithuanian Bus Stops, Teatr Academia, Warsaw
Portraying Communities: Kamionka, French–German Institute, Aachen
Portraying Communities: Podgórze, CCA, Warsaww
2003Portraying Communities: Kamionka, Teatr Academia, Warsaw

Selected group exhibitions

2019Fiction and Fabricatation, Photography of Architecture after the Digital Turn, MAAT Museum Art Architecture Technology, Lisbon
Nature in Art, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Cracow
Une collection d’art contemporain (Collection Jacques Font), musée des beaux-arts, Carcassonne
2017#Library, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań
Late Polishness. Forms of national identity after 1989. Center for Contemporary Arts, Warsaw
Life. A Manual. Exhibition inspired by the work of Georges Perec, Zachęta – National Gallery of Art
The Urge to Create Visions, Centre for Polish Sculpture, Orońsko
WHITE MEMORY, Art in Malta and Poland 1989 - 2018, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta
2016Bogactwo - Money to Burn, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
La Memoria Finalmente, Galeria Civica de Modena, Modena
Salon Nowej Fotografii, Galeria Raster, Warsaw
Warszawa w Budowie 8, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
Young Poland - Afterimages of reality, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
2015Archi-sculpture, Fondation Villa Datris, L’ilse sur la Sorgue
Emulsion, Archaeology of Photography Foundation, Warsaw
KURZ / DUST /غبار , CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
Procedures for the head/ Polish Art Today, Kunsthalle Bratislava
State of Life. Polish Contemporary Art within a Global Circumstance, National Art Museum of China, Beijing
2014Kitchen politics, Nowy Teatr, Warsaw
Memory. Registers and Territories, International Culture Centre Gallery, Cracow
SURVIVAK KIT 6 Contemporary Art Festival, Riga
The Limits of Globalisation, 4. Mediations Biennale, Poznań
2013A photo of the city, Nowy Teatr, Warsaw
Architecture in opposition, Czytelnia Sztuki, Bytom
Artloop Festival, Sopot
Katalog, galeria Entropia, Wroclaw
Mark Rothko, Paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, National Museum in Warsaw
Modern Architecture Works, Industrialna gallery, Sofia
Politics: I do not like it, but it likes me, LAZNIA, Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk
Warsaw, the day after... Vartai Gallery, Vilnius
homeMADE, constructing substitute worlds, LAZNIA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Gdansk
2012Photo-design 2. City. Mass. Machine. Galeria Asymetria, Warsaw
2011Enklawa, CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
Plundering the ruins of reality, BWA Warszawa, Warsaw
Skontrum, Krolikarnia Palace, National Museum in Warsaw
That something on the Horizon, National Library, Warsaw
The Journey to the East, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok
2010Dreams (un)real, Avant-guarde Institute, Warsaw
Fitting in Sapce, Zico House and 98 weeks project, Beirut
Modernizacion, PHOTOESPANA, Cuenca
NineteenEightyfour, Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC
2009Awake and Dream, Signum Foundation, Palazzo Dona, Venice
Nieodkryte Niewypowiedziane, Teatr Nowy, Warsaw
Przypadkowe Przyjemności, BWA Katowice
Take a look at me now, Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts, Norwich
2008Bloody Beautiful, Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam
In a contradictory city, Galeria Manhattan, Łódź
Red Eye Effect. Polish Photography of the 21st Century, CCA, Warsaw
Where the East Ends, Nassauischer Kunsvterein, Wiesbaden
2007Concrete Legacy, CCA, Warsaw
The Memory of this Moment…, former Schindler factory, Cracow
2006The New Documentalists, CCA, Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw
2004Die Nacht ist meine Welt, Rebell Minds Gallery, Berlin
Young Polish Art, Polish Embassy in Tokyo
2003BRONorblin, Norblin Museum, Warsaw
Neighbours for Neighbours, Teatr Academia, Warsaw
2003Block–Neighbourhood–Apartment, Raster Gallery, Warsaw