kuba stępień (@apkvp)

I am thrilled to invite you to the group show ‘play’ opening on 19.09 at @galeria_szczur as part of the @warsawgalleryweekend program. This will be the first time I’m presenting part of a new series of pastel paintings created over the summer 🥁 Play curated by @kamilmizgala Jan Baszak, Stan Buglass, Daniel Dąbrowski, Linda Lach, Brad Nath, Kuba Stępień, Agnieszka Topolska, Klara Woźniak, Andrzej Staniek Szczur, Okrzei 27, (03-715) Warszawa 19.09.2025 - 28.09.2025 performative guided tour by Emma Szumlas and Kamil Wesołowski *not artwork, just me looking happy in a funny ass hat

Dear T (when self-defence is self-harm), 2025 ink, marker, pencil, glue, saliva, paper, acrylic paint and nail polish, on corkboard, 40x80cm a story about a trans kid who escaped but never left the city

Miner’s (grand)daughter at @komunawarszawa pics by @wiktorisvictor thanks to all who attended the show and made it so special 💋💋💋 there were some joyful moments of being an insider but I want you to know that now im whistling these melodies that I couldn’t whistle when I was around you when I do that I shape my lips as if I’m about to kiss someone *excerpt from my Miner’s (grand)daughter love letter 9,10 pics from process by me 11 video by @mattiaxspich

different case same solution (till 1990 including 2022), 2025 ink, glue, saliva and nail polish on canvas, 18x24cm being part of my solo show at @medium_gallery in Bratislava curated by @romualddem 
The title refers to the long tradition of public executions in Slovakia and the figure of a Kat (executioner). The death penalty in the country was abolished on July 2, 1990, but I decided to fictionally incorporate a certain tragic event from 2022 into the history of public executions. Through reproducing the symbolic image of an executioner (my photograph of the sculpture situated in a tourist area of the city, on the historical street of executioners, photographed as a mugshot) I wanted to mark that despite the fact that we treat it as history, the figure of the executioner is still being reproduced, as an invisible embodied technology. On the evening of October 12, a 19-year-old Bratislava grammar school student targeted and shot dead two young queer people - a university student and Tepláreň gay bar bartender Matúš Horváth and visual merchandiser Juraj Vankulič – outside the bar situated near the city centre with his father’s legally owned gun. Another customer, a woman, was also injured during the shooting. The oppressor was a son of a politician from the non-parliamentary far-right party Vlasť (Homeland). Before the shooting, he published online a white supremacist manifesto in English, expressing his wish to carry out further attacks on different groups and in different places. *The profession of an executioner was hereditary, it was passed down from father to son. If a daughter was born to an executioner, she was only allowed to marry into the executioner’s family. If an executioner died childless, his office remained vacant for a long time. The city had trouble finding a new executioner, so they had to borrow one from another city.

i actually did it myself

Miner’s (grand)daughter show premieres next Saturday at 4.30pm at @komunawarszawa as an intimate solo performance in form of a love letter ⚒️ It will happen at Cafe Cabaret, specially arranged for the play in one of the rooms of the former school 🪗 Special thanks to @markus.ohrn @slezak_ida @ptr_mrwsk @lwkozak @shoemlas @s_a_damczak @grzegorzlaszuk @batatatowska @patrycja_wysokinska @original_halinka for your support, kindness and generosity 💗 *pics were taken during the process of working on the piece 🎩

A Trap To Live Within curated by me at Reichenberger Str. 114, 10999 Berlin

Almitra Pyritidis @__all_bug_no_bite___ Brad Nath @brad_nath Elsa Estrella @elsaestrella Emma Szumlas @shoemlas Filipka Rutkowska @filipkarutkowska Jan Baszak @baszakjan
Julek Płoski @julekploski Kuba Stępień @apkvp Luka Naujoks @lukanaujoks Mati Szczanowicz @matiszczanowicz
Paula Breuer @pau.l_a Seawon Park @wonpark.se Weronika Wysocka www.weronikawysocka.com Zuza Miłobędzka @szoszankamilobedzka
 
when she was growing up she was voiceless
locked from the inside but without feeling claustrophobic
shell shelter second skin
a collection of letters and a freak on a leash

music is nice, but ideas are stronger
to know who I want to be I had to learn who I don’t want to be
I want to produce a break, waiting for everything to happen at the same time
and to do it and to do it and to do it to keep the ball in the air

there are also things that cannot be articulated in words
how many rooms can you make ur own?
who the fuck knows? No fucking body
they do what they can inch by inch step by step mile by mile man by man 
rename things once again
when u cut into the present and the future leaks out

I’m my own sibling I’m a full trap
living in my bed house
doing it without thinking
got a key to lock myself inside 

It’s not like I got used to it, but I’m trying to understand more and more
I feel some kind of itching when I talk about it
meaning is promiscuous and it’s shifting
it’s still moving although if it’s not a part of me anymore
measurement changes the thing that is measured
with some things the question is not if, but when it arrives to you
if u wait for sth to become worse it will
the show is a poem, it’s a …, it’s a cabaret
my farewell to berlin pics by @joanna__wilk

I’m my own sibling, I’m a full trap, 2025, ink, marker, pencil, glue, saliva, paper, acrylic paint and nail polish, on hand-cut and polished plywood panel, 90x125x2cm pic by @joanna__wilk

My solo show at @medium_gallery in Bratislava curated by @romualddem opens this Wednesday at 7pm and runs till 25.05 💌 when fuck becomes love, 2024 cardboard from inside an old leather briefcase covered with latex, ink print and handwriting transfered onto the surface using latex *the work refers to the story of Robert Indiana’s sculpture LOVE that originally was supposed to say FUCK pic by @filipstalewski

cabaret rockstar pics from the premiere show that we did at @lark.berlin so grateful to be a part of the iconic band Antidote by @nevademure is out ❤️‍🩹 stream the masterpiece on repeat waiting for the next shows 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11 by @nebieridze.de 1,12 by @shoemlas harlequin circus body by @madomorpho 🌹

A Trap To Live Within
2.05.2025 (2pm-10pm) New Fears Gallery, Reichenberger Str. 114, 10999 Berlin

curated by Kuba Stępień @apkvp

Almitra Pyritidis @hi_its_almi Brad Nath @brad_nath Cassandra Augusta Jørgensen @cassie_johnnysdaughter Elsa Estrella @elsaestrella Emma Szumlas @shoemlas Filipka Rutkowska @filipkarutkowska Isabella Lovestory @isabellalovestory Jan Baszak @baszakjan
Julek Płoski @julekploski Kuba Stępień @apkvp Luka Naujoks @lukanaujoks Mati Szczanowicz @matiszczanowicz
Paula Breuer @pau.l_a Seawon Park @wonpark.se Weronika Wysocka www.weronikawysocka.com Zuza Miłobędzka @szoszankamilobedzka 
 
when she was growing up she was voiceless
locked from the inside but without feeling claustrophobic
shell shelter second skin
a collection of letters and a freak on a leash

music is nice, but ideas are stronger
to know who I want to be I had to learn who I don’t want to be
I want to produce a break, waiting for everything to happen at the same time
and to do it and to do it and to do it to keep the ball in the air

there are also things that cannot be articulated in words
how many rooms can you make ur own?
who the fuck knows? No fucking body
they do what they can inch by inch step by step mile by mile man by man 
rename things once again
when u cut into the present and the future leaks out

I’m my own sibling I’m a full trap
living in my bed house
doing it without thinking
got a key to lock myself inside 
It’s not like I got used to it, but I’m trying to understand more and more
I feel some kind of itching when I talk about it
meaning is promiscuous and it’s shifting
it’s still moving although if it’s not a part of me anymore
measurement changes the thing that is measured
with some things the question is not if, but when it arrives to you
if u wait for sth to become worse it will
the show is a poem, it’s a …, it’s a cabaret
my farewell to berlin

Doppi II, 2025 latex, wig, cotton hoodie, digital print, paper, tape, pins one day I won’t need you (excaliber), 2025 being part of candy lounge light installation at @mos_gorzow both works on view at „Using Our Hairy Tales” group show curated by @kamilmizgala pics by @filipstalewski