Alicja Biała: Acid Bite

The Royal Drawing School is proud to present a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist and alumna Alicja Biała.

Presented together for the first time, the exhibition features works from the artist’s recent solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), works that continue the themes explored in her commission for the Headquarters of the Council of the European Union, as well as works on paper created during her time at the Royal Drawing School.

Alicja Biała, based in Poland, the Netherlands, and the UK, works across a diverse range of media, including public installations, sculpture, painting, drawing, and etching. Her practice intertwines tradition with the political and personal tensions of contemporary life, critically examining our shared cultural past. Both speculative and interrogative, her work explores the formation of cultural identity and the impact of environmental degradation.

This exhibition presents a powerful body of work that explores interconnected themes of environmental degradation and ecological resilience, all while showcasing a remarkably innovative approach to materials. Central to this is Biala’s profound exploration of drawing and etching, skills honed during her time on The Drawing Year. Works on paper from this period are displayed alongside her series, Beneath the soft ground, hard ground, where regenerative plants are etched onto mirrored brass, inviting viewers to reflect within an imagined healing garden.

In the series Open Bite, large-scale metal curtains crafted from copper and zinc, are etched with images of Adam and Eve using acidic water sourced from mine tailings ponds across England, Germany, Poland, and Wales. This process transforms classical depictions of the Fall from Paradise—inspired by Old Master works by Cranach, Dürer, and Rembrandt—into a striking metaphor for environmental destruction.

The Hyperaccumulators series presents sculptural representations of nettles and sunflowers, each capable of extracting heavy metals from contaminated soil and water. The sculptures serve as monuments to nature’s ability to heal itself, highlighting the crucial role of plants in mitigating damage inflicted by human activity on the environment.

Acid Bite is kindly supported by Maria Manetti Shrem