Bio
Born in Vancouver-Canada and raised by the Polish immigrant community, Natalia Kalicki has maintained a studio practice in Leipzig, Germany, since 2016. She holds a BFA in Painting from Concordia University, Montreal, and an MA in Anthropology from University of Leipzig. Natalia is currently an associated PhD candidate at the Anthropology of Politics and Governance department of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle.
She is a member of Kombinat e.V, a collective atelier located in Halle 14 at the Spinnerei. Her work is currently represented by 丄丅乀 Art Gallery in Beijing.
Natalia has participated in international art residency programs in Iceland, Ólafsfjörður (2014-15); Germany, Leipzig (2016); China, Beijing (2019); and Jersey Island (2021-22.) She looks forward to returning to China for an art residency at Taoxichuan Art Center in Jindezhen in 2025.
She has exhibited extensively locally and abroad, including at Art Central during the International Art Fair in Hong Kong (2024) Helmut in Leipzig (2024) Mom Art Space in Hamburg, Germany (2023) Capital Hill in St. Helier, Jersey Island (2022), The InsideOut in Sacramento, U.S.A. (2021), Shangyuan Museum in Beijing, China (2019) Never Apart in Montreal, Canada (2016) Skammdegi Festival in Akureyri, Iceland (2016) and across Leipzig, including at the Grassi Museum (2019) Ars Avanti Gallery (2019) Galerie Bipolar (2016) and Salon Similde (2017). She participates in local Leipzig events, including at the Spinnerei Rundgang (2023-2024) and annually during the Tour de Franz open studio festival (2017-2023).
For her work Natalia has been awarded the Skammdegi AIR award, a CALQ stipend, a public art commission and work stipend from ArtHouse Jersey, a research production grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant twice, as well as a doctoral scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.
Statement
Natalia Kalicki is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation and visual arts. Incorporating research methods from anthropology, she goes about displacing objects or situations out of an initial meaning- making-context, aiming for collaborative confrontation, recalibration, or a kind of bonding. She prioritizes developing interdisciplinary strategies and bringing people together, and is interested in unfolding questions already asked by other practitioners, such as what artistic production has to do with producing/unsettling knowledge regimes. Central in her work are archives of all kinds, and questions of public and private memory as a substance of political power.
Her anthropology looks at bottom-up art worlds, (monster institutions, para-institutions, anti-institutions, sustainable practice, the commons) particularly at the intersection of experimental economies and political engagement, and through the mores and materialities that constitute emergent modes of being and belonging. Her doctoral work is a case study of artist-run spaces in Warsaw, Poland.
Education
2027* PhD Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
2022 MA Anthropology. University of Leipzig, Germany
2016 BFA Painting, Minor English Literature. Concordia University, Montreal Canada.
2014 | 15 Studies at Lapland University. Rovaniemi, Finland.
Exhibitions
2024 饥饿 Hunger, (Solo) 丄丅乀SPACE , 798 Art Zone, Beijing, China
2024 Shenzen County Exhibition, Shenzhen, China
2024 Boundary Issues, (Solo) Helmut, Leipzig, Germany
2023 JOMO, Mom Art Space, Hamburg, Germany
2022 Home, Capital House, ArtHouse Jersey, St. Helier, Jersey Island
2022 P o l e s Apart, CWA, St.Helier, Jersey Island
2021 Project Cairn. The InsideOut, Sacramento, USA Solo
2019 Museum On The Couch. Grassi Museum. Leipzig, Germany
2019 Located - Dislocated. Krudebude. Leipzig, Germany
2019 Strays on Leashes. Shangyuan Art Museum. Beijing, China
2019 …but these sunsets are better. Ars Avanti Gallery, Leipzig, Germany
2018 Access Granted: A Global €on$pirac¥. With Lucino Veo. LindeNOW Festival. Leipzig, Germany
2017 Eat This. With Lucino Veo. Salon Similde. Leipzig, Germany
2017 Diversity Collection. Pilotenkueche. Lindenow 13 Festival. Leipzig, Germany
2016 Goodbye Horses. Pilotenkueche, Spinnerei. Leipzig, Germany
2016 Popessy, Zum hinkenden Han. Leipzig, Germany
2016 Wild Horses. Galerie Bipolar . Leipzig, Germany
2016 ¯\_( )_/¯Markt. Salur Myndlistarfélagsins . Akureyri, Iceland *NKS
2015 Bunny Suit. FluxBau. Berlin, Germany
2015 Liminal Boxes. Galleria Kajo II, Rovaniemi, Finland.
2015 Northern Interventions: Public Art on Private Housing. Rovaniemi, Finland.
2014 Awkward Bodies. VAV Gallery, Montreal, Canada.
2014 Kissing Trial. Public Performance. VAV Gallery, Montreal, Canada.
Residencies
2025* Taoxichuan Art Center in Jindezhen
2023 Kombinat e.V. Artist-run space at Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2022 Independent Research Project Lost Tracks: Sustainable Cultures of Land-Based Mobility
2022 ‘Home’ Jersey ArtHouse AIR Program, Production-Exhibition Residency, Jersey Island
2019 Shangyuan Modern Art Museum AIR. Beijing, China
2016 PILOTENKUECHE Leipzig, Germany
2015 | 16 Listhus A-I-R. Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
Festivals | Presentations | Tours
2025* Upcoming Beijing Contemporary Art Expo
2024 Third Room Artist talk, Leipzig
2024 Art Central, International Art Fair Hong Kong
2023 | 24 Spinnerei Rundgang, Exhibition, Kombinat e.V
2023 Edible Forms of Knowledge, Presentation, Kombinat e.V
2023-2017 Tour de Franz, Offenne Ateliers Leipzig, Germany
2020 Tapetenwerk, Benefizkunstauktion, Leipzig, Germany
2017 Diversity Collection. Pilotenkueche. Lindenow 13 Festival. Leipzig, Germany
2016 "...and eat it too” Manpower Festival . Lisbon, Portugal.
2016 Artist Talk Pilotenkueche, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Rum Tum Lordi. Video Screening by NKS. Never Apart, Art Matters Festival . Montreal, Canada
2016 NKS Open Studio. Skammdegi Festival . Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2015 Skammdegi. Skammdegi Festival. Listhús í Fjallabyggð, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2015 Art Market Presentation Tröllaskagi Upper-Secondary School, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
Work$$$
2023-2020 ASA & Enrichment Program Arts Teacher, Leipzig International School, Leipzig
2020 Editor and Translator, Ujazdowski Castle for Contemporary Art, Remote
2019 | 20 Assistant, AIR Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland
2017 | 18 Program Coordinator. Pilotenkueche Art Program, Leipzig, Germany
Memberships
2023 | 24 Kombinat e.V Member
2020 MODS Core Member | Virtual Lab
2015 Studio XX Member. Montreal, Canada
Grants | Awards
2024 Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation Doctoral Scholarship
2022 Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create Grant Recipient
2022 Jersey ArtHouse: Stipend and Production Grant
2020 DAAD Scholarship
2019 DAAD Scholarship
2019 Social Art Award | Catalog
2019 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Second Grant Recipient
2016 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant Recipient
2015 CALQ Award NKS (Natalia Kalicki | Samuel Cousin) for Listhus AIR program
2015 | 16 Skammdegi AIR Award. Residency by Listhus. Ólafsfjörður, North Iceland.
2014 | 15 MELS Student Mobility Bursary. Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport. Quebec, Canada
