The Polish-born, London-based artist Alicja Biała works across a range of different mediums, predominantly installation, sculpture, etchings and paintings. A graduate of the The Royal Drawing School and the Royal College of Art, Biała has exhibited in solo shows across Europe, most recently unveiling a solo show Raw Earth, Rare Earth at Berntson Bhattacharjee Gallery London, in which Biała transformed the gallery into a kind of living ecosystem, spread across two floors.
Exhibited concurrently at the inaugural edition of Echo Soho, her installation in the upstairs Chapel space of the Soho-based art fair continued the themes presented in her solo presentation, as well as her ongoing Hyperaccumulator sculptures, a body of work she has been developing since 2024. In the room, nine bronze-cast sculptures revealed plant types that are capable of growing in toxic water and soil (nettles, sunflowers and bulrushes). Converted into an immersive, darkened space, the room was filled with what appears to be black sand, but is actually slag – a kind of mining waste. Dystopian at first glance, Biała’s work reveals the power of nature to renew and revive.
