KAI WASIKOWSKI

Kai Wasikowski was born in 1992. He currently lives and works on Gadigal Land / Sydney, Australia. His practice encompasses photography, video and sculpture. He often draws on his familial connection to landscape photography and environmental conservation as a point of departure for his work, with an interest in how colonial optics employs photography to obscure the social and political stratifications of land, resources, possession, and belonging. 

Wasikowski received his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2023, and his BVA (First Class Honours with University Medal) from the University of Sydney in 2016. His work has received notable awards including the Dr Harold Schenberg Art Fellowship from the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (2017); the AusArt Scholarship from the American Australian Association (2020); and the Marten Bequest Scholarship from Creative Australia (2021). 

He has exhibited in curated exhibitions including the New South Wales Visual Artist Emerging Fellowship (2018), Artspace, Sydney, Australia; “Oceans From Here,” Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney (2018); “‘Til It’s Gone,” Museum of Old and New Art’s MONA FOMA Festival, Launceston, Australia, 2021; the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award (2022); Home of the Arts Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia; the Fauvette Loureiro Memorial Scholarship, Sydney College of the Arts Gallery, Sydney, 2020 and 2022; the National Photography Prize, Murray Art Museum Albury, Australia, 2024. 

His work has been featured on the cover of “Art Monthly Australasia,” and written about in “Artist Profile,” “Art Collector,” “VAULT Magazine,” and “The Australian Financial Review.” His work is held in public and private collections including Home of the Arts and Artbank Australia. He has participated in residencies at the Three Shadows Photography Centre in Beijing and Xiamen, China (2019) and ran educational workshops for the Australian Centre for Photography, the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre; and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney.