Marcin Dudek

Marcin Dudek (b. 1979) lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

Art as a strategy for living; Marcin Dudek’s practice builds from autobiographical experience and expands to explore the broader phenomenon that shaped it. These include the rituals of subculture, DIY economy and crowd dynamics – how one gets pulled into many and what control is lost as a mass gains momentum. Often working with found, salvaged or repurposed materials, Dudek constructs objects, installations, painting and performance, touching upon questions of power and aggression in the context of sport and cultural spectacle. His paintings offer insight into his overall approach, which incorporates a rather obsessive work ethic, meticulously slicing and manipulating medical tape, rubbing images into the cloth and building up a painting through collage. The level of detail and craft is manic and neurotic, meditative and thoughtful, as violence becomes an energetic aesthetic reflecting a lived experience.

After leaving Poland aged 21, he studied at the Mozarteum University Salzburg (AT) and at Central Saint Martins (London, UK), graduating in 2005 and 2007 respectively. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Museum Ostwall (Dortmund, DE); IKOB - Museum of Contemporary Art (Eupen, BE); Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris, FR); MNAC National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest, RO); and the MWW Wrocław Contemporary Museum (PL). Dudek has participated in group exhibitions at the BPS 22 - Art Museum of the Hainaut Province (Charleroi, BE); SMAK - Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (Ghent, BE); 8th Biennial of Painting (Deinze, BE); The Warehouse (Dallas, US); the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (RU); the Salzburger Kunstverein (AT); the Arad Art Museum (RO); Bunkier Sztuki Gallery (Kraków, PL); the Goethe-Institut Ukraine (Kiev, Ukraine); and many others.

His work has been acquired by the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection (Berlin, DE); IKOB - Museum of Contemporary Art (Eupen, BE); Collection de la Province de Hainaut - BPS 22 (Charleroi, BE); Uhoda Collection (Liège, BE): Verbeke Foundation (Kemzeke, BE); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, PT); Zabludowicz Collection (London, UK); MNAC National Museum of Contemporary Art (Bucharest, RO); and MWW Wrocław Contemporary Museum (PL). His first monograph, Slash & Burn, was published by Hopper & Fuchs in 2023.