Monika Shaded

Monika Shaded (b. 1983 in Ciechanów, Poland) is a visual artist and academic at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań. In 2008, she graduated with distinction in painting and completed additional studies in art criticism, art promotion and art education. She earned her PhD in fine arts in 2013.

Her practice spans painting, drawing, textile art and spatial installation. Working with ephemeral materials such as paper and fabric, she explores their physical properties and potential for transformation through processes of dyeing, soaking, layering and spatial arrangement. Her work engages with existential questions, focusing on transience, memory, fragility and the search for meaning. Through poetic symbolism, signs and associative imagery, she seeks to approach what remains unnamed, elusive and beyond the reach of full understanding. Recurring motifs such as boats, clouds, gates, banners and flags inhabit the space between material presence and symbolic meaning.

Shaded has exhibited her work in Poland and internationally. Her recent exhibitions include the international exhibition at CONTEXTILE 2026, the Contemporary Textile Art Biennial in Portugal, and La Villa (The Key to Art from Poznań) at Villa Farsetti in Santa Maria di Sala, near Venice, Italy. In 2026, she received a Special Prize at the 21st edition of the Arte Laguna Prize. Her earlier distinctions include Second Prize at the 4th International Biennial of Artistic Textile in Poznań and finalist status at the Łódź Abstract Art Festival (LAAF). She has also received scholarships from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the City of Poznań and the Marshal of the Wielkopolska Region.

Alongside her artistic practice, Shaded is involved in curating and art education. She curated the Trzy Mosty Foundation International Painting Competition and served on the curatorial team for the Maria Dokowicz Competition, which recognises outstanding graduate work at the University of the Arts in Poznań. She currently heads the postgraduate programme in painting at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań.