Katarzyna Zimna graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts and Painting and the Faculty of Visual Education at the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź (with distinction, 2002 and 2004). Between 2005 and 2010, she studied at Loughborough University School of Art and Design in the UK, where she defended her doctoral dissertation on play/game as a concept in aesthetics and creative strategy in modern and postmodern art. She obtained her postdoctoral degree (habilitation) in the discipline of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Graphic Arts and Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź in 2019. She is the author of the book Time to Play: Action and Interaction in Contemporary Art (I.B. Tauris 2014 / Bloomsbury 2020).
From 2003 to 2013, she collaborated with educational publishers on commissions in publishing design and illustration. She has participated in numerous group and juried exhibitions in Poland and abroad, and has held over a dozen solo exhibitions. Twice a grantee of the Frans Masereel Centrum for Graphic Art in Kasterlee, Belgium. She has taken part in international graphic art conferences such as the Impact International Printmaking Conference (Bristol 2009, Hangzhou 2015, Santander 2018, Hong Kong 2021, Bristol 2022), the Paradox Biennial European Art Forum (Riga 2019), and the Lost&Found Symposium (Warsaw 2024). She is a member of the international printmaking collectives Femigraphic and Magenta Research Collective. In 2020, she was awarded the Honorary Medal of the International Triennial of Small Graphic Forms (Łódź, Poland).
The main current of her artistic practice is associated with printmaking, which she treats as a starting point for explorations in object art, textiles, video, and participatory practices involving the viewer. In addition to theoretical and practical issues related to print media, her academic interests include the theory of play and games, creative problem-solving methods, feminism, new materialism, and eco design, particularly with the use of material innovations.
Since 2011 she has been employed at the Institute of Architecture of Textiles, Lodz University of Technology, currently as an Associate Professor in the research-and-teaching staff group. She has participated in numerous scientific and educational projects, such as Masters of Didactics, Implementation of the Tutoring Model, Erasmus+ GreenTex, Erasmus+ PICODE – International Collective for Design, Horizon EU SustDesignTex, and FERS – Education for the Needs of the Economy at Lodz University of Technology. She is the Faculty Coordinator for Erasmus+ and Ceepus programs, a permanent member of diploma committees, and the Study Program Councils for Design and Industrial Design Engineering.
She teaches classes related to printmaking (traditional and experimental), artist’s books, and illustration at BA and MA design programme. She is co-founder and curator of the faculty JUTRO gallery. She supervises bachelor’s and master’s theses in the specialization Visual Communication and Printing Techniques (illustration, graphic design).
Artistic and academic portfolio: www.kasiazimna.net
