Forms of Meaning: Contemporary Polish Ceramicists to Watch

Nie-baw-sie-jedzeniem-02-fot-Iga-Staszczak-1.jpg, default, 'Don't Play with Food' by Iga Staszczak, photo: Iga Staszczak

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Ceramics is no longer just a craft – today, it is increasingly becoming a field of experimentation and a way of narrating contemporary realities. The Polish exhibition at the 6th UNICUM Ceramics Triennial 2026 in Ljubljana showcases the work of a generation of extremely talented young Polish artists and designers. If you’re into ceramics, these are the people and the studios you should be watching.

The prestigious UNICUM International Ceramics Triennial, organised by the National Museum of Slovenia, serves as a platform for creators from around the world and as a space for showcasing the latest, most innovative works. The event is a catalyst for new trends and promotes sustainable practices, encouraging the use of environmentally-friendly materials and techniques.

For the Forms of Meaning exhibition, organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and Center Rog, curator Mika Drozdowska has invited 13 artists and designers from Poland to demonstrate how clay is used today – not only as a material, but also as a vehicle for meaning, memory, relationships and responsibility. The exhibition features works by Bartosz Brylewski, Aleksandra Liput, Lena Majsiak, Anja Marschal, Karina Marusińska, Natalia Kopytko, Paweł Olszczyński, Iga Staszczak, Dominika Kulczyńska, Aleksandra Pulińska, Huby Studio (Jakub Ciemachowski, Piotr Kołakowski) and Zbiór Studio (Antonina Wolska, Iga Staszczak).

Meet the Polish ceramicists you should know:

1. Bart Brylew Studio / Bartosz Brylewski

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'Object 3' by Bartosz Brylewski, 2022, photo: Pion Studio

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Bart Brylew studio, founded by Bartosz Brylewski, creates collectible lighting, sculptural forms and site-specific objects for contemporary interiors, with a practice rooted in material exploration and craft. The studio creates unique pieces, limited editions and custom commissions, and develops objects that merge raw tactility with architectural presence.

Brylewski’s practice centres on experimenting with ceramic, glass, and industrial techniques to blur the boundary between sculpture and functional design. Each work begins with physical models, texture studies and material sampling rather than drawings, resulting in monolithic forms that feel closer to geological formations than conventional objects. His creations carry an organic, transformative quality – suspended between the natural and the abstract – while embracing the depth, imperfection and tactile richness of handmade processes.

Check out the studio’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bartbrylew/

2. Huba Studio / Jakub Ciemachowski & Piotr Kołakowski

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Ceramic objects by HUBA Studio (Jakub Ciemachowski, Piotr Kołakowski), photo: Piotr Kołakowski

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Huba is a ceramic studio founded by Jakub Ciemachowski and Piotr Kołakowski, created in response to the culture of mass consumption and disposable objects. Rooted in a belief that the things surrounding us shape both our lives and our environment, the studio focuses on creating meaningful, lasting works with the potential to become contemporary heirlooms. Their practice reflects a deep awareness of the human, economic and political consequences of industrial production, encouraging a more thoughtful relationship with material objects and the values we attach to them.

The studio specialises in wood-fired ceramics, embracing unpredictability and allowing fire, ash and atmosphere to play an active role in shaping each piece. Through this collaboration between craftsmanship and natural forces, Huba creates objects that feel raw, tactile and deeply individual – balancing utility with sculptural presence while celebrating imperfection, process, and permanence.

Check out the studio’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/huba.studio.ceramics/

3. Natalia Kopytko

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'Ice' by Natalia Kopytko, photo: Marcin Spiora

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Natalia Kopytko is a sculptor and installation artist based in Kraków, whose practice centres on memory, absence and the archaeology of childhood. Since 2016, she has been affiliated with the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków, where she teaches ceramics at the Institute of Art and Design. Working primarily with ceramics, Kopytko explores traces of forgotten places, distorted memories and the emotional resonance of objects and domestic spaces. Her works often evoke layered relationships between people, nature, architecture and personal history, balancing intimacy with a dreamlike, almost mythical atmosphere.

Deeply influenced by her hometown of Łysa Góra – historically associated with the renowned Kamionka ceramics cooperative and the legacy of designer Bolesław Książek – Kopytko draws inspiration from landscapes shaped by the coexistence of human intervention and organic natural forms.

A recipient of the Polish Ministry of Culture’s Young Poland scholarship, the Kraków Creative Scholarship, and the Kultura Odporna grant, she is also a member of the O.W.L. art collective.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: Natalia Kopytko (@natalia__kopytko) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie
O.W.L. Art Collective: OWL Art Collective (@owl_art_collective) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie

4. Dominika Kulczyńska

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Bottles and clay vessels by Dominika Kulczyńska, photo: Jerzy Wypych

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Dominika Kulczyńska is an interdisciplinary artist and ceramic designer whose practice explores the relationships between humans, matter and the natural environment. A graduate of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław and the AFA School of Photography, she is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where her research-based artistic practice operates at the intersection of art, geology and biotechnology. She is also a co-founder of Zakwas Studio, a design cooperative focused on sustainable craftsmanship and material experimentation.

Working across sculpture, installation, and ceramic objects, Kulczyńska investigates processes of transformation, coexistence and ecological interdependence. Her works are often created using wild clay and mining waste, materials she approaches as living matter capable of entering into dialogue with other forms of life.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dominikakulczynska/

5. Aleksandra Liput

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'Dreamy Talismans', an installation by Aleksandra Liput, 2024, photo: Kuba Mozolewski

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Aleksandra Liput is a visual artist working across ceramics, textile, sculpture and installation. A graduate of the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, she also completed interfaculty studies at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. Currently affiliated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw as an assistant in the Drawing Studio at the Faculty of Painting, Liput completed her PhD in 2023 with the project Today the Trees Outside the Window Looked Like Living Creatures on the Moon, presented at Galeria Labirynt in Lublin. The research explored concepts of retrotopia, spirituality and the contemporary search for meaning.

In her artistic practice, Liput investigates themes of spirituality, myth, utopia and magical objects, often drawing inspiration from ancient beliefs, folklore and speculative narratives. Working across diverse media including ceramics, textiles, site-specific installation, video, paper and glass, she creates immersive environments that blur the boundaries between the mystical and the material. Liput’s works have been exhibited internationally in institutions including Zachęta – National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and Oxilia Gallery in Milan.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleksandraliput/
Find out more on Culture.pl: Aleksandra Liput - Biography | Artist | Culture.pl

6. Lena Majsiak

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Foam create using a ceramic technology in a circular economy strategy by Lena Majsiak, photo: Jerzy Wypych

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Lena Majsiak is a ceramic artist and graduate of the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. Her practice is grounded in close observation of ceramic matter, which she treats not as a passive material, but as an active participant in the creative process. Rather than focusing solely on finished objects, she develops experimental material systems that emerge from a dialogue between maker and matter, aiming towards more responsive and environmentally conscious approaches to production.

A key project in her work is a self-developed ‘ceramic foam’ designed to absorb sound, created as part of her diploma project and awarded both the Rector’s Grand Prize and the Okiem BWA prize. This material innovation reflects her broader interest in questioning material hierarchies and rethinking how we understand and use matter in design. Part of Zakwas Studio, Majsiak continues to explore ceramics beyond traditional object-making — toward adaptive, sensory, and ecologically attuned material systems.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: Instagram
Zakwas Studio: Zakwas Studio (@zakwas_studio) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie

7. Anja Marschal

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'Sabata' by Anja Marschal, photo: promotional materials

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Anja Marschal is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose practice spans ceramics, assemblage and storytelling. Born in West Germany and raised in post-socialist Poland, her early experiences of cultural, material and ideological contrasts continue to shape her artistic worldview. She later studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and developed a practice rooted in ceramics and material experimentation. She is currently based in France after years of working and traveling across Europe and beyond.

Her work explores memory, identity and transformation through fragmented materials, often using ceramic remnants, waste and discarded forms as the basis for new sculptural compositions. Her practice is shaped by a lived experience of duality – between languages, systems and geographies – forming a visual universe grounded in contrast, tension and poetic reconstruction.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: Anja Marschal (@anja_marschal) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie

8. Karina Marusińska

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'Scraps' by Karina Marusińska, photo: Karina Marusińska

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Karina Marusińska is an interdisciplinary artist, academic lecturer and ceramic designer with a postdoctoral degree (since 2024). Born in 1983 in Piotrków Trybunalski, she currently lives and works in Wrocław, where she graduated from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in the field of Ceramics and Design. She also completed international studies and residencies in Bilbao (University of the Basque Country), Guebwiller (Institute of Ceramics), and through the Kaolin postgraduate programme in contemporary ceramics at ENSA Limoges in France and Jingdezhen in China. Since 2010, she has been teaching at the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, where she co-leads the Contextual Ceramics Studio.

Her artistic and research practice combines ceramics, installation and socially engaged projects, with a strong focus on community, education and cultural processes. She co-founded the performance group Łuhuu! and the design collective Wzorowo, and is a member of Food Think Tank. Marusińska’s work often operates at the intersection of art and everyday life, exploring how objects function within social and cultural systems. Her projects have been widely exhibited and awarded internationally, and are included in collections such as Poland’s national museums in Warsaw, Kraków, and Wrocław, as well as the Krehky Gallery in Prague.

Check out her website: Karina Marusińska
Find out more on Culture.pl: Karina Marusińska

9. Paweł Olszczyński

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'PINY' by Paweł Olszczyński, photo: Łukasz Rossienik

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Paweł Olszczyński is a visual artist working across drawing, painting, graphics and ceramics, with a practice deeply rooted in the relationship between art, decorative forms and architectural space. Born in Kraków in 1985, he graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and studied at Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach am Main. Between 2010 and 2012, he co-founded the influential New Roman gallery and collective in Kraków. He has received scholarships from the Mayor of Kraków and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and currently lives and works in Warsaw.

In recent years, ceramics have become central to Olszczyński’s practice, through which he revisits the visual language of postwar Polish decorative art, folk traditions, symbolism and modernist architectural ornamentation. Drawing inspiration from the ceramic legacy of Łysa Góra and the collaborative experiments of the Kamionka cooperative, he creates sculptural vessels, tiles, reliefs and functional objects infused with mythology, queer aesthetics and metaphysical narratives. His works often reference chimera-like figures, Slavic urns, ritual objects, and surreal decorative motifs, merging handcrafted techniques with contemporary sensibilities.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawel_olszczynski/

10. Aleksandra Pulińska

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A design by Dominika Kulczyńska and Aleksandra Pulińska, photo: promotional materials

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Aleksandra Pulińska is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice examines the evolving relationship between culture, nature and human responsibility. She graduated from the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź and also completed interfaculty studies at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, she is developing her ongoing ‘post-artifacts’ project — objects initially designed by the artist but subsequently transformed by other living organisms, proposing a new form of collaboration between culture and nature.

Working across a wide range of media including site-specific installation, video, paper and glass, Pulińska explores questions surrounding authorship, transformation and the limits of artistic control. Her practice often blurs the boundary between the organic and the constructed, creating works that evolve over time and invite reflection on coexistence, ecological interdependence, and the shifting role of the artist within natural processes.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: Aleksandra Pulińska (@aleksandra_pulinska) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie Prace

11. Zbiór Studio / Iga Staszczak & Antonina Wolska

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Ceramics by Zbiór Studio (Iga Staszczak & Antonina Wolska), photo: Zbiór Studio

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Iga Staszczak is an artist, designer and potter, who works at the intersection of functional ceramics, glass and contemporary craft. A graduate of the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, she completed her master’s degree with distinction in 2023. Her diploma project received the Rector’s Grand Prize in the Best Diplomas Competition at the Academy and was later presented at exhibitions including Design 32 in Katowice and the Łódź Design Festival. Alongside designer Antonina Wolska, she co-founded the design studio Zbiór, a practice centered on collectible functional objects created through upcycling, craftsmanship and playful reinterpretations of vintage forms. Staszczak’s work explores emotional relationships with everyday objects and the stories embedded within material culture. Drawing inspiration from postmodern aesthetics, eclectic tableware traditions and sustainable design practices, she creates ceramic and glass objects that merge contemporary forms with found vintage elements.

Antonina Wolska is a multidisciplinary designer and ceramic artist whose practice bridges graphic design, functional ceramics and contemporary craft. Interested in visual arts and design from an early age, she studied Graphic Design at SWPS University, Visual Communication at the University of Wrocław, and later completed a master’s degree with distinction in Ceramics and Ceramic Design at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław in 2023. Alongside her ceramic practice, she works as a freelance graphic designer, creating visual projects presented at events such as 4 Design Days in Katowice and through collaborations including designs for Paw Decor. She also participated in the international artistic project Eurofabrique at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris. Her practice is defined by bold colours, experimentation with form and a sensitivity to craftsmanship, balancing nostalgia with contemporary design language while emphasising reuse, material longevity and the poetic value of ordinary objects.

Together at Zbiór Studio, Wolska and Staszczak reimagine incomplete or forgotten domestic objects by combining them with newly-designed multifunctional forms, encouraging more open and adaptive ways of thinking about utility, collecting and consumption.

Check out the artist’s Instagram: Iga Staszczak (@igafryga) • Zdjęcia i filmy na Instagramie Instagram
Zbiór Studio’s website: https://zbiorstudio.com/

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Forms of Meaning – Contemporary Polish Ceramics at the 6th UNICUM International Ceramics Triennial 2026 in Ljubljana

Where: Center Rog Creative Hub, Ljubljana, Slovenia
When: 15 May – 5 September 2026
Curator: Mika Drozdowska, in co-operation with Anją Radović
Artists: Bartosz Brylewski, Aleksandra Liput, Lena Majsiak, Anja Marschal, Karina Marusińska, Natalia Kopytko, Paweł Olszczyński, Iga Staszczak, Dominika Kulczyńska, Aleksandra Pulińska, Huba Studio (Jakub Ciemachowski, Piotr Kołakowski), Zbiór (Antonina Wolska, Iga Staszczak)
Organisers: Center Rog, Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Partners: Polish Embassy in Ljubljana, BWA Wrocław Galerie Sztuki Współczesnej

Language English

ceramics

polish ceramics

polish design