MONIKA FABIJANSKA

Monika Fabijanska is an art historian, contemporary art curator and art appraiser based in New York City.

She is currently working on a large transnational project, supported with a 2023 Curatorial Research Fellowship of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, co-writing a book about Betsy Damon, and teaching Curatorial Practice at the New York University. She will be a 2024 Critic-in-Residence at Art Omi.

Her critically acclaimed exhibition of Ukrainian artists Women at War (Fridman Gallery, 2022), listed among ten best art exhibitions of 2022 by both The Washington Post and Frieze, is currently touring U.S. and Canadian university museums. Betsy Damon. Passages: Rites and Rituals (La MaMa Galleria, 2021) was among The New York Times best art shows of 2021, following ecofeminism(s) (Thomas Erben Gallery, 2020), and a groundbreaking The Un-Heroic Act: Representations of Rape in  Contemporary Women's Art in the U.S. (John Jay College CUNY, 2018) which was ranked among the best NYC art shows in 2018 by Hyperallergic.

Fabijanska provided the initiative, curatorial and art market consulting for The Museum of Modern Art acquisition and retrospective exhibition of Polish feminist sculptor Alina Szapocznikow (2012), and consulted on WACK! Art in the Feminist Revolution with curator Connie Butler (MoCA LA, NMWA, MoMA P.S.1, 2007-08); and Global Feminisms with curator Maura Reilly (Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2007).

Fabijanska co-produced the presentations of Artur Żmijewski (MoMA, 2009-10), Krzysztof Wodiczko (ICA Boston, 2009-10), Christian Tomaszewski and Joanna Malinowska (Performa, 2009), Tadeusz Kantor (The Jewish Museum, 2008-2009), Zbigniew Libera (University of Michigan, 2006), Wilhelm Sasnal (Berkeley Art Museum, 2005). She organized international conference Art and Theater of Tadeusz Kantor (Graduate Center CUNY, 2009) and curated Tadeusz Kantor's "Theatre of Death" screening series and exhibition (La MaMa E.T.C., 2008). She produced and assisted curator Aneta Szylak with the exhibition Architectures of Gender. Contemporary Women’s Art in Poland (SculptureCenter, 2003, catalog).

In 2003 she launched and led Poland-US Artist-in-Residence Exchange Program, which c. 50 artists, in collaboration with Location One, NYC; Headlands, Sausalito, CA; Spaces, Cleveland, OH, and CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw. Currently, she collaborates with The Bronx Museum of the Art’s AIM fellowship program.

Her writing on women’s art has appeared in exhibition catalogs, edited volumes, The Brooklyn Rail, Women’s Art Journal, Degree Critical (SVA), LINEA, BLOK Magazine, Magazyn Szum, Orońsko Sculpture Quarterly, etc. She regularly presents at CAA annual conferences. Fabijanska holds a Master of Arts degree in History of Art from the University of Warsaw.

CURATORIAL

In 2018 at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, Fabijanska curated “The Unheroic Act,” an astute, widely reviewed survey of postwar and contemporary art about sexual violence. Now she once again covers an impressive stretch of aesthetic and historical ground—this time using twenty-six artworks by sixteen female artists. But what stands out is the cohesiveness of her curatorial vision. - Louis Bury, Art in America, July 19, 2020

Monika Fabijanska curates solo and group exhibitions independently, and organizes projects for public institutions, private galleries, and art fairs, with accompanying public programming and publications. Her experience includes the realization of complex public art projects in NYC. She writes and teaches about contemporary art.

APPRAISING

Monika Fabijanska is an appraiser of international post-war, contemporary, and emerging art with current. She completed art appraising course the Appraisers Association of America and passed examination of the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), with biannual updates - currently compliant through May 2025. USPAP is the Congressionally-recognized set of ethical and performance standards for the appraisal profession in the U.S., promulgated by The Appraisal Foundation.

ADVISORY SERVICES  

The combination of experience in the art world and background in international diplomacy makes her unique in the field. Clients appreciate her critical apprehension of new works of art that stems from theoretical knowledge, comparative perspective, and experience in judging artistic work. Her critical judgment helps enrich collections with works of high aesthetic and intellectual value with a significant museum potential. While focusing on the U.S. art market, she also follows markets for Polish artists and arranges secondary market sales in Europe and the US.

working with ARTISTs

Monika Fabijanska collaborates with and sometimes represents artists whose works manifest intellectual depth and social significance. Owing to her expertise in cultural history and her understanding of contemporary artistic practice – and ability to persuade others to consider new ideas – she has an exceptional record of introducing new artists for inclusion in museum collections and institutional exhibitions. In her work she draws on experience in international relations and a network of curatorial contacts in the US and Europe.