Apolonia Sokol

Born in 1988 in Paris, Apolonia Sokol is a French figurative painter of Danish and Polish descent. After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, she moved to the United States and settled in New York where she worked in the studio of painter Dan Colen. She later moved to Los Angeles where she befriended other artists and painters with whom she started an ongoing conversation on figurative painting. 

Sokol is known for her political stance on the art of portraiture, claiming the need to use it as a tool of empowerment and deconstruction of marginalization or domination. That is why she addresses multiple issues such as feminisms, queerness, women’s representation throughout art history and body politics in general. 

Apolonia Sokol exhibited her work in Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris, Istanbul, Mexico City, Rome, Los Angeles and her work has been included in institutional exhibitions, such as: Tainted Love / Club Edit at the Villa Arson in 2019 (curated by Yann Chevallier), Aux sources des années 1980, at the Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Sables d’Olonne, in 2019 (curated by Amélie Adamo), Mademoiselle at the Crac Occitanie in 2018 (curated by Tara Londi), Tainted Love, inaugural exhibition at the Comfort Moderne in 2017 (curated by Yann Chevalier), Peindre, dit-elle at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dole in 2017 (curated by Julie Crenn).

Her most recent institutional exhibitions include Possessed curated by Vincent Honoré at the MOCO Museum and Conversation Piece VII Verso Narragonia (Towards Narragonia) curated by Marcello Smarrelli at the Fondazione Memmo in Rome. 

She was selected for the Emerige prize in 2018 and winner of the Antoine Marin prize for painting. 

HBO & Danish Documentary are producing a documentary on the artist’s journey, directed by Lea Glob who has been following over the last decade.