Katarzyna Perlak has been based in London since 2004.
2025 Biennial Year Find out more
She has studied Philosophy in Poland and Fine Art Media in London, at Camberwell College of Arts, 2008 and Slade School of Fine Art, 2017. Her work has been widely exhibited, including at V&A Museum, London, 2024, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2023; Remote Intimacies, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York & ONE Archives, Los Angeles, 2021; Young Curators New Ideas V, Detroit Art Week, Detroit; I was, but just awake, Art Night, London, 2019; A Day of Learning, Diaspora Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2017 and Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, 2017.
Liverpool Biennial 2025
'The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly', 2025
Katarzyna Perlak’s work is driven by politics and feelings; her works often reimagine historic or archival stories, ideas or places from a contemporary feminist, Queer and diasporic (migrant) perspective.
This new, collaborative film is set in the elaborately decorated bedrooms, hallways and ballrooms of the iconic Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. Co-created with local award-winning film-making organisation First Take and participants from their REEL: Queer programme, the film adopts a non-linear, poetically disorienting structure. Drawing on the aesthetic and affective language of horror – a genre resonant to both the collaborators and the artist – to explore longing and Queer identity.
Once a popular destination for wealthy travellers en route to North America via Liverpool in the early twentieth century, the Adelphi Hotel
Katarzyna Perlak’s work is driven by politics and feelings; her works often reimagine historic or archival stories, ideas or places from a contemporary feminist, Queer and diasporic (migrant) perspective. This new, collaborative film is set in the elaborately decorated bedrooms, hallways and ballrooms of the iconic Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. Co-created with local award-winning film-making organisation First Take and participants from their REEL: Queer programme, the film adopts a non-linear, poetically disorienting structure. Drawing on the aesthetic and affective language of horror – a genre resonant to both the collaborators and the artist – to explore longing and Queer identity. Once a popular destination for wealthy travellers en route to North America via Liverpool in the early twentieth century, the Adelphi Hotel has, over the years, become home to countless stories, legends and myths. Building on these foundational narratives, the artist reimagines the hotel as a vessel for memory, desire, mourning, and transformation. The film features predominantly actors and performers from Liverpool and was shot entirely on location with the cast and crew of REEL: Queer. The film transforms this historic hotel into a place where fear, hope and joy all reside. Courtesy of the artist. Co-commissioned by Liverpool Biennial and First Take, with support from Polish Cultural Institute in London. With thanks to the Adelphi Hotel.
'The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly', 2025
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Katarzyna Perlak, 'The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly', 2025. Liverpool Biennial 2025 at Open Eye Gallery. Photography by Mark McNulty.
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Katarzyna Perlak, 'The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly', 2025. Liverpool Biennial 2025 at Open Eye Gallery. Photography by Mark McNulty.
Liverpool Biennial 2025
'Mother Tongue, Woven Skin', 2025
Through her work, Katarzyna Perlak employs a notion of ‘tender crafts’, exploring how crafts, heritage and traditions can be revisited and re-imagined from contemporary feminist, queer and diasporic (migrant) perspectives. She references myths, folklore, dreams, desires and collective memories to question and resist how history is often written and how traditions are represented.
This new, large-scale textile and embroidery work is made from bags which the artist’s mother sends her care packages in from Poland to her home in London, UK – it is the artist’s most ambitious textile work to date. Newspaper clippings used to wrap jars and other fragile items are transferred onto the fabric, alongside ‘kitchen wisdoms’ captured through regular conversations with her mum. For Perlak,
Through her work, Katarzyna Perlak employs a notion of ‘tender crafts’, exploring how crafts, heritage and traditions can be revisited and re-imagined from contemporary feminist, queer and diasporic (migrant) perspectives. She references myths, folklore, dreams, desires and collective memories to question and resist how history is often written and how traditions are represented. This new, large-scale textile and embroidery work is made from bags which the artist’s mother sends her care packages in from Poland to her home in London, UK – it is the artist’s most ambitious textile work to date. Newspaper clippings used to wrap jars and other fragile items are transferred onto the fabric, alongside ‘kitchen wisdoms’ captured through regular conversations with her mum. For Perlak, the work reflects on maternal care, issues of migration and homesickness, and shared political and economic challenges across borders. Courtesy of the artist, with thanks to Annika Thiems (sewing support) and Rebecca Bellantoni (embroidery support). Supported by Polish Cultural Institute in London.
'Mother Tongue, Woven Skin', 2025
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Katarzyna Perlak , 'Mother Tongue, Woven Skin' 2025. Liverpool Biennial 2025 at Walker Art Gallery. Photography by Mark McNulty.
Venue
Walker Art Gallery
William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8ELAccess facilities available
View venue
This edition
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Katarzyna Perlak, Broken Hearts Hotel (2021), video still. Photography by Miroslava Večeřová -
Katarzyna Perlak, darning and other times, 2022. Installation view, Brent Biennial 2022. In the House of my Love. Courtesy of the artist. -
Katarzyna Perlak, Left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, Bated Breaths (2020 – ongoing). Courtesy of the artist.
