Paulina Semkowicz (1980, Krakow) lives and works in Vienna. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków (Painting, MFA Degree, Diploma with Distinction 2006;  Postgraduate Degree in Scenography, 2013) and Faculdade de Belas Artes, University of Porto, Portugal. Her work uses painting to create transitable narrative spaces, where absence and presence become key in the experience of the viewer. Informed by her trajectory in theatre painting, she transforms backgrounds into active scenarios of contingency, playing with themes that are elusive yet profoundly resonant. 

She has exhibited her work individually at VIN VIN Gallery, Vienna; Galeria Presença (Project Room), Porto; Galerie Laetitia Gorsy, Leipzig; Tower, Vienna; Unus-Una-Unum project, FPSW/Program Gallery, Warsaw; Galerie A Suivre, Bordeaux; and Fundacja Atelier, Warsaw. She has recently participated in group exhibitions at Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna; Vienna Design Week; Gallery of the Cultural Center "Semberija", Bijeljina; Kunstverein Baden; Galerie Stephanie Kelly, Dresden; Galerie Laetitia Gorsy, Leipzig; In Spite Of, Porto; Pryzmat Gallery, Krakow; STUDIOLI, Rome; or Fettes College, Edinburgh, UK.