Elka Krajewska

A devoted interdisciplinarian whose work is rooted in collaboration, Elka pushes the boundaries of art and art-making, utilizing elements of her biography and contemporary art historical strategies. Born in Warsaw in 1967, under communism, the artist emigrated to New York City in 1989 where the downtown performance and music scene (especially around Ontological Hysteric Theatre where she made props for Richard Foreman’s productions) has shaped her fluid attitude toward materials and aesthetics. Her work continuously shifts through media—painting, sculpture, video, digital film installations, photography, performance—employed in collaborations with fellow artists, composers and poets. Krajewska has been consistently returning to work and exhibit in Poland. Since 2007, she has nurtured the artistic practice of Warsaw-based KrajM, the artist’s mother, and produced KrajM’s catalogues and exhibitions. Their collaboration has been featured at lokal_30 in 2019.

Her “Plany Mela”, 2007, is the first ever 70mm abstract experimental film made for, and projected on, an Omnimax screen (360º Imax Dome). It incorporates 3 frames from The Dante Quartet, as a tribute to Stan Brakhage who hand-painted Imax film-stock but never got it projected.

Elka Krajewska is also known as the president of Salvage Art Institute, which she founded in 2009 to articulate the nature of artworks declared “total loss” by insurance companies and officially removed from art market circulation.

She holds a BA in literature and photography from City College of NY and an MFA from Yale School of Art where she studied photography with Nan Goldin and Richard Benson and sculpture with Ron Jones. Her works have been presented at solo exhibitions with the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok, Soloway Gallery in NY as well as with Carico Massimo in Livorno, Italy.