Artist Statement
My work begins with the experience of living ‘in between’ places – between Poland and Australia, between family history and lived memory, and between what I remember and what disappeared from my memory.
I grew up in rural Poland, in a family where giving back to the community has been part of our DNA for generations. That sense of belonging, generosity and shared responsibility continues to shape my artistic practice, particularly my interest in the stories, histories and connections that bring people together.
I am interested in what we carry with us across distance and generations. Family photographs, memory of landscape, domestic objects and fragments of personal history are ways of exploring migration, memory, loss and the continual reconstruction of identity.
Photography allows me to return to things that can no longer be physically reached. I work across analogue and digital photography, cyanotype, textiles and installation, using personal archival photographs and found materials. Through processes of layering, repetition, concealment and reconstruction, I consider how images can retain the memory of people and places while also revealing the gaps, distortions and absences within memory.
At the centre of my work is a question I continue to return to: how do the people, places and histories we leave behind continue to shape who we become?
Bio
Aldona Kmieć (pronounced “KM-yetch”) is a Polish-Australian artist based in Naarm/Melbourne, working across photography, cyanotype, textiles, installation and archival practice.
Born in Poland and migrating to Australia in 2009, her work explores personal and collective histories shaped by migration, inherited memory and place. Moving between conceptual and documentary approaches, she brings archival photographs into dialogue with contemporary landscapes, domestic objects and experimental photographic processes.
Kmieć has exhibited across Australia, including at RACV galleries, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, City Library Gallery and State Library Victoria. Her practice also extends to large-scale photographic murals, private installations and public art projects, including collaborations with the City of Ballarat.
She was a finalist in the Bowness Photography Prize (2014) and Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize (2024), and a recipient of the City of Melbourne Arts Grant (2025).
Her artistic practice has received national and international media coverage, including features in The Design Files, Australian Country, Airbnb Asia and ABC Radio Ballarat, as well as a television feature on Channel 7’s Better Homes and Gardens showcasing her photographic mural and artistic practice.
Kmieć holds an Advanced Diploma in Photography from London Metropolitan University. Her work is held in public and private collections, including State Library Victoria, St John of God Hospitals, Ballarat Arts Foundation and the former Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka.
She is a resident studio artist at Montsalvat Arts Centre in Melbourne, where she develops new work and delivers cyanotype workshops exploring historical and alternative photographic techniques.
