Agata Derda

Nick Novak Mid-Career Printmaker Residency Recipient

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Agata Derda was born in Poland to a working-class family. She began her art education at a local youth centre and later studied at the high school of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland. In 2010 Derda completed a BFA with Honours in Printmaking at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, Ireland. Derda immigrated to Edmonton in 2011 where she completed an MFA at the University of Alberta in 2013. Derda has exhibited in Hamilton, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver as well as internationally in Slovakia, Poland, China, the United States, Ireland, France, and the UK. She recently won an award at the International Print Triennial in Krakow, Poland.

Derda’s art practice is centered on the creation of large prints, which combine both linocut and digital printmaking techniques. Her work often responds to and comments on contemporary social issues related to the injustices of cultural deprivation, such as the normalization of violence and sexual assault.