Piotr Uklański was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1968. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and photography at the Cooper Union School for Advancement of Science and Art, in New York.

Piotr Uklański has emerged on the New York art scene in the mid-90s with an emblematic artwork, the Untitled (Dance Floor), 1996 – a sculpture that integrates the legacy of minimalism with the blurring of art and entertainment that characterizes the current era.

Dividing his time between New York and Warsaw, Uklański has constructed a diverse body of work that exploits as many types of media (sculpture, photography, collage, performance, and film) as it promiscuously absorbs cultural references. His work has been internationally exhibited in various contexts including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Modern in London, and Ludwig Museum in Cologne. Uklanski represented Poland at the 26th Sao Paulo Biennale; he took part in The 50th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, The 63th Venice Film Festival and the most recently – in 2010 Whithey Biennal at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Uklański’s work often draws polemical reactions since the artist does not shy away from potentially controversial subjects. His photographic series ‘The Nazis’ caused protests when exhibited in The Photographers Gallery in London in 1998, and was destroyed in a publicity stunt staged by a celebrated Polish actor, Daniel Olbrychski, while on view in Zacheta Gallery in Warsaw, in 2000.
Uklański’s billboard ‘Untitled (Ioannes Paulus PP.II Karol Wojtyła)’, on the other hand, when exhibited on the streets of Warsaw, was spontaneously turned into a memorial shrine after the Pope’s death in 2005.

In 2006, Uklański debuted his first feature-length film entitled Summer Love: The First Polish Western. Written, produced and directed by Uklański, this allegorical western features Polish film stars Boguslaw Linda and Katarzyna Figura as well as Val Kilmer in the role of the Dead Man. Summer Love has received numerous accolades, including its premiere as part of the official selection of the 2006 Venice Film Festival and its nomination for the Gucci Group Award in 2007. It has been the only Polish movie theatrically released in the US.

Artist’s works are part of private and public collections, among them: Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York, Tate Modern in London, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Migros Museum in Zurich, Rubell Family Collection in Miami, Peter Brant Foundation in Greenwich, Francois Pinault Foundation in Paris, e.a.

Currently Uklanski has been working on his upcoming solo shows at the Lever House and the Gagosian Gallery in New York, as well as on his retrospective show at Zacheta National Gallery in Warsaw, to be opened in 2011.