Image: South London Gallery
South London Gallery will present Monika Sosnowska’s 'Weight of Matter' from 10 September to 22 November 2026, bringing the Polish artist’s large-scale sculptural practice into both the Main Gallery and the Fire Station Galleries. The exhibition will span the Main Gallery and two floors of the Fire Station, with free admission and no booking required. Open hours are listed as Wednesdays from 12pm to 9pm and Thursday to Sunday from 12pm to 6pm.
Sosnowska’s work is described by the gallery as exploring architecture and urban transformation. In 'Weight of Matter', she will present monumental sculptures made from steel, concrete and other industrial materials associated with modernist architecture, alongside intricate paper models that are usually developed in the studio and rarely shown publicly. The gallery says these maquettes are being shown in London for the first time as part of 'Weight of Matter'.
At the Main Gallery, the exhibition will feature a site-specific installation of large-scale hanging sculptures, some weighing over half a tonne. Suspended from the rafters, the works are presented in the gallery’s text as resembling carcasses or remnants of architectural and broader histories, merging into an intertwined and at times difficult-to-parse mass. The display draws directly on Sosnowska’s interest in how space and structure shape perception.
The Fire Station, which dates back to 1867, will host works installed in response to the building’s architecture and history. According to the gallery, one sculpture is based on the form of a collapsed black metal staircase and will be shown in the former engine room, where it is placed in dialogue with the Fire Station’s white metal stairs. Another gallery overlooking an outdoor space will be overtaken by plant-like sculptures to form what the gallery calls a concrete garden.
Upstairs, in the former firemen’s living quarters, painted steel works will suggest crumpled paper and peeling walls, recalling the building’s dilapidated condition before it was converted. The exhibition text links these interventions to Sosnowska’s longstanding focus on the legacy of modernism, as well as on architecture, spatial experience and the impact of built environments on people.
The South London Gallery notes that Sosnowska is based in Warsaw and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań before completing postgraduate training at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions listed by the gallery include 'Monika Sosnowska: An Order Apart' at EMMA (Espoo Museum of Modern Art) in Finland in 2024, 'Ghosts' at Galerie Gisela Capitain in Cologne in 2024, and a major presentation at Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern in 2023. Her work is also currently on show at the Princess Estelle Sculpture Park in Rosendal, Royal Djurgården, Stockholm.
'Weight of Matter' is supported by the Bukhman Foundation as lead exhibition donor, with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as exhibition partner. Additional support is listed from the Henry Moore Foundation, Latif & Company, Marcin and Izabela Wiszniewski, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Galerie Gisela Capitain, kurimanzutto, The Modern Institute, Emma and Fred Goltz, and the Monika Sosnowska Supporters’ Circle.
