Maciej Gąbka

Maciej Gąbka is an interdisciplinary artist whose artistic expression encompasses sculpture, object art and photography. His practice explores the impact of normative systems on society – the ethical and moral qualification of human norms. Gąbka’s work focuses on exploring and understanding the factors that compel people to make everyday decisions, and judgments, or feel obligated to perform certain actions.

In the solo exhibition “User Experience”, Maciej Gąbka presents his latest works – reliefs and sculptures – that illustrate the relationship between humans and objects as it arises through their physical interaction. The title is associated with the term “user experience” (UX), which describes the overall feelings and impressions that a person encounters when interacting with everyday products, services, or systems. It encompasses not only functionality and ease of use but also emotional, aesthetic, and contextual aspects. Each artwork is accompanied by commentary based on scientific research, discussing and legitimizing specific standards and explaining representations of normative behavior. The exhibition depicts our everyday lives, where any behavior that is considered outside the norm is noticed and has consequences. The objects in the exhibition reveal how we adhere to established rules and perceive the world through normative filters, allowing viewers to make connections between the works in the exhibition and their own personal everyday experiences. The artist’s role here becomes similar to that of a designer, who constructs the forms of ordinary objects on the basis of statistics and observations of visual culture. Meanwhile, the aim of “User Experience” becomes to ensure that the interaction between the human and the product, in this case, the viewer, is intuitive and effective, thereby increasing user engagement.

Maciej Gąbka (b. 1993) graduated in Artistic Graphics (2017) and holds a master’s degree in New Media Art Studies (2020) from the University of the Arts in Poznań. He has been actively participating in exhibitions since 2019, both in Poland and abroad. The artist has held five solo exhibitions and participated in more than 17 group exhibitions. In 2022, the artist’s series “Get out of the path” was presented at the Spectra Art Space of the Starak Family Foundation, a renowned Polish art foundation. Maciej Gąbka has received multiple cultural awards and honors, including the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Award (2014), two nominations as a finalist in the Hestia Artistic Journey competition (2016, 2019), the Alicja Kepińska Prize (2017, 2020), and the 10th edition prize at the Printmaking Biennale in Poznań. The artist currently lives and works in Warsaw.

Maciej Gąbka’s exhibition “User Experience” will be on view until January 11th at the (AV17) Gallery, Totorių str. 5, Vilnius.