is an art historian, curator and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre For British Art in London, UK. She holds a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Contemporary Art from the University of Oxford, UK.

My current research explores the relationship between art from Eastern Europe and the socio-economic conditions of peripheral modernity within the capitalist world system. I have contributed to peer-reviewed journals (ArtMargins), catalogues (Venice Biennale, 2019; Prague Biennale, 2022; Kyiv Biennale, 2025; Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw), and art magazines (e-flux, L’Internationale, post MoMA, Afterall).

My dissertation "Afterlives of Serfdom: Art, Modernity and Uneven Development in 20th-century Poland", offers a theoretically and historically innovative account of how modern art from Poland has registered, reacted to, and worked through the peripheral realities of uneven capitalist development. Challenging the prevailing political and national focus of scholarship on art from the region, the study foregrounds a materialist perspective, emphasizing the significance of modes of production, class structures, and the historical conditions of capitalism in shaping artistic practices and cultural production.Spanning from the interwar Second Polish Republic to the post-Soviet decades, the thesis reflects on art’s changing relationship to the country's peripheral experiences of capitalist modernity and modernization. 

I am also the co-editor of the collection "Art, Race, and Coloniality in Eastern Europe", forthcoming with Routledge in winter 2025. Until recently, the region had been largely absent from discussions about colonialism's impact on artistic production. While this is undergoing a major shift, many contributions often consist of an uncritical adoption of the Western discourse, overlooking the region's specific historical and political context. Addressing this developing but challenging field, the collection includes a wide range of methodological perspectives, addressing both the potentials and limitations of a postcolonial/decolonial lens in relation to the region. 

Previously, she was an Assistant Researcher at The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and a Curatorial Fellow at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy. She has also curated shows in Stockholm, Turin, London and Gdansk (Poland). Michalska is part of the Polish section of AICA.