Current publication:
Negative Space Trajectories of Sculpture in the 20th and 21st Centuries
edited by Peter Weibel published by MIT Press and ZKM Karlsruhe 2021
Marlena Kudlicka’s practice centers on sculpture and art in public space. Through her work, she translates the history of art and its frameworks—particularly the legacies of Constructivism, Conceptualism, and Minimalism—into a contemporary unique spatial language.
Working across indoor and outdoor contexts, Kudlicka collaborates closely with architects, engineers, constructors, and specialized craftsmen in metal and glass. Her hybrid approach engages with art history, site-specific context, and philosophy, while addressing themes such as error, communication systems, protocols, strategy, productivity, and efficiency.
Kudlicka often bridges the precision of industrial materials with poetic sensibility. Her sculptural compositions transform the rigor of engineering into what she calls spatial poetry—where light and shadow animate forms like phantom equations, shimmering with beautiful imperfections. Although her declared subjects are “work productivity” and “efficiency,” her art reads as a meditation on the space between perfection and its necessary deviation.
Investigating linguistic and structural systems, Kudlicka explores the mechanics of spatial and semantic relations—how thought becomes form, and how communication operates within physical and conceptual boundaries. Her meticulously constructed sculptures and reliefs, often made of steel, glass, and powder coating, reflect a process-oriented inquiry into patterns, equations, and systems of order.
“I am interested in the question: what tolerance of precision is allowed to transform thought into a physical shape?” she notes. Her process involves mapping the relationship between error and its derivatives—uncertainty, doubt, hesitation—creating what she refers to as recipes. These “recipes” serve as indices of the sculpture’s genesis: not merely its physical structure, but the accumulation of knowledge, calculation, risk, and fallibility that shape its final form.
At the core of Kudlicka’s practice lies an inquiry into the (im)possibility of translating experience through language—how we grant others access to what we see through what we say. Seeking to reconcile natural language with the visual language of art, her work extends a century-long dialogue between form, meaning, and interpretation, navigating the fragile terrain where thought becomes visible.
By merging linguistic systems with spatial composition, Kudlicka’s sculptures reveal the tension between structure and its necessary imperfection. They invite viewers into a space where calculation meets intuition, and where the abstract languages of art, architecture, and philosophy converge in quiet, exacting harmony.
Marlena Kudlicka received a M.A. in painting and drawing at the Department of Painting, Graphics and Sculpture Academy of Fine Art Poznan, Poland (1993-98). Her work has been exhibited in various international venues such as Kestner Gesellschaft, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart Berlin, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst Bremen, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Zacheta National Gallery Warsaw, Museum of Art Lodz, MACBA Buenos Aires, Galeria do Torreão Nascente da Cordoaria Nacional in Lisbon, Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art Budapest, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, CGAC Santiago de Compostela, among others.
Kudlicka’s sculptures are placed in a few public permanent commissions (amongst them, 2019 0 comma A permanent sculptural work 1st Prize KUNST AM BAU, BTU Cottbus Senftenberg Neubau Fluiddynamik awarded by the state of Brandenburg; and in same year 2019 velvet mind marble thoughts outdoor sculpture for Centre of Polish Sculpture (CRP) in Oronsko, Poland.
Kudlicka’s work is included in numerous museum collections, such as CGAC Santiago de Compostela Spain, ARCO Collection Spain, Museum of Art Lodz Poland, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum Poland, Kestner Gesellschaft and in many private collections, including Barbara and Aaron Levine, Washington DC.
Marlena completed residences at 2016 Residencia Al Lado; 2014 Cite Internationale des Arts Paris. Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department; 2008/2009 Swing Space LMCC New York; 2007/2008 International Studio & Curatorial Program New York; 2004/2005 International Residency Program Location One New York; Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart; 2003 Art Omi International Arts Center New York.
Her work has been regularly on view at international art fairs as The Armory Show New York, Art Basel Miami, ARCO Madrid, Untitled Miami, Artissima, arteBA, vien
Marlena Kudlicka – proces, poezja i geometria
by Dobromiła Błaszczyk dla Restartmag
https://restartmag.art/marlena-kudlicka-proces-poezja-i-geometria
Marlena Kudlicka Biogram
by Przemyslaw Strozek for Culture PL
https://culture.pl/en/artist/marlena-kudlicka
Marlena Kudlicka one more than 1o
curated by Adam Budak collaboration Robert Knoke
https://kestnergesellschaft.de/en/exhibition/67
Marlena Kudlicka one more than 1o
Text by Julia Meier
https://kestnergesellschaft.de/doc/kestner_gesellschaft_222DD2-3DD9-2-30.pdf
Elements of Peaceful Engagement
Atlantica
https://www.revistaatlantica.com/en/elements-of-peaceful-engagement/
Text for „Sculpture in search of a place” catalogue at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art
https://zacheta.art.pl/pl/wystawy/rzezba-w-poszukiwaniu-miejsca?galeria=21
https://zacheta.art.pl/rzezba/0056.html
https://zacheta.art.pl/en/wystawy/rzezba-w-poszukiwaniu-miejsca?setlang=1