Monika Patuszyńska, a graduate of the Ceramics and Glassworks Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva, is one of the brightest stars in her field. Her work has been recognised by the likes of Natasha Mayo of the National Centre for Ceramics w Cardiff, who recognised her ability to gain inspiration from the difficulties of her trade and to create new forms, new combinations and new techniques based on a unique knowledge of her material and a flair for expermintation. Mayo compares her work to fitting together pieces of a puzzle that don't entirely fit together. Last year she presented a successful solo show at the Puls Contemporary Ceramics Gallery in Brussels and now heads to London for the city's most important event dedicated to ceramics as the first Pole in eight years.
In London, Patuszyńska is presenting her TransForm and ParaForm series, along with her latest TransForm Plus series, which builds upon her previous work, and the G-Tops series of shapes inspired by tops, a toy with a significant tradition, yet not as often seen on toyshop shelves in recent years. She has been casting for over ten years, evolving a very characteristic practice based on traditional ceramics - smooth casting and forms. Yet her most interesting pieces are completely unexpected, resembling organic forms - crumpled paper, bone and rock. These forms are irregular, yet they maintain a certain aesthetic grace. She explains that over time her main emphasis has shifted
from the final object to the creative process itself, to material and technique. The plaster mould is a beginning, not the end of the process of creation. It throws open many new creative possibilities. Presently I am researching a development which employes the destruction and reassembling of moulds. I like to let accidents lead me. I like accidents, feeling that they occur when the world turns a blind eye, looses vigilance and reveals the truth about itself.
Ceramic Art London 2012 at the Royal College of Art is the major selling fair for contemporary studio ceramics at the Royal College of Art on the 24th of February - 26th of February 2012. The series is presented by The Craft Potters Association in partnership with Ceramic Review, providing a showcase for contemporary designers and studios, along with talks, demonstrations and presentations of the latest in young emerging talent from the UK and abroad.
Patuszyńska is also among the artists featured this month at the Unpolished 12 series - a showcase of Young Design from Poland at the Design Museum in Helsinki as part of the museum's 2012 World Design Capital programme. The series has traveled throughout Europe and several cities in Asia, presenting the best of Polish design at major trade fairs, such as the Salone del Mobile in Milan (Italy), Designer’s Days and Design Week in Paris (France), Budapest Design Week (Hungary), Inno Design Tech Expo Hong Kong (China) and the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne (Germany) in February 2012.
Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka, co-curator of the exhibition and also art director for the annual Łódź Design Festival, has based her selection of the 16 designers in the ongoing series based on the unique qualities of the work of Polish designers and how it differs from what's being made in the rest of Europe and the world. She explains that "the process of creating and selecting materials is definitely very specific. The designers use materials which are easily available, inexpensive and natural: wood, osb and mdf, felt or recycled materials. They make their works themselves or with the help of local craftsmen. Most works are prototypes, unique objects or limited series". Most of the artists are around 30 years of age, at the beginning of their careers, but swiftly gaining attention from abroad. Quite often they draw inspiration from traditional culture and crafts, linking it with innovative technologies and ecologically-minded concepts. The designers allow themselves a large degree of freedom, experimenting and playing about with design to create objects that are both intriguing and surprising in form, but also readily functional. The show is on between the 10th of February - 4th of March, 2012.
The exhibition has been curated by Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and Paweł Grobelny, with the support of the Regional Museum of Stalowa Wola, Poland and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Helsinki. This edition features Monika Patuszyńska's TransForms, along with furniture, lighting, kitchenware, porcelain and more, such as Malafor's blow sofas, Oskar Zięta's Plopp stools (winner of the Forum AID Awards 2009) and Karina Maruszyńska's 'bitten' teacups and Bartosz Mucha's 'poor design'. Other designers include Aze Design, Beton, Agnieszka Czop + Joanna Rusin, DBWT, Fawory, Gogo, Kompott, Bogdan Kosak, Alicja Patanowska, , Magdalena Trzcionka. The show runs between the 10th of February - 4th of March, 2012.
It doesn't stop there for Patuszyńska as she's also part of Nina Hole's Friends and Fire-mates Matchbox series of about 180 different matchbox designs from all over the world at the Grimmerhus - Danmarks Keramikmuseum - Museum of International Ceramic Art in Middelfart, Denmark, along with four other designers from Poland - Henryk Zaremba, Anna Zamoyska, Michael Flynn and Ewelina Wojtowicz. The show runs between the 15th of January - 8th of April, 2012.
Monika Patuszyńska is also part of the
Porcelana inaczej / Porcelain Differently series and symposium at the
BWA Gallery in Wrocław, curated by Patuszyńska herself, who chose 12 designers to form an international group that exchanged ideas, experiences and inspirations. Other featured artists include Alicja Patanowska (PL), Bartek Mejor (PL), Kamila Szczęsna (PL/USA), InSook Park (AUT), Kayoko Hoshino (JP), Satoru Hoshino (JP), Michał Puszczyński (PL), Norio Shibata (JP), Olaf Brzeski (PL), Susan Nemeth (UK). From Szczęsna's abstract forms are obviously inspired by shifting organic forms, with one piece looking like the oozing shape of a chaotically poached egg to Olaf Brzeski's violent sculptures that appear to have suddenly exploded, perhaps after the overzealous application of a firing tool. His piece
Dream - Spontaneous Combustion (2008) is on show here, which was a signature piece at last year's major show of young Polish talent in Brussels -
The Power of Fantasy at Bozar. Bartek Mejor creates clean forms that are rather geometric, tectonic, with depth and texture, movement, presenting a dynamism of form make the object seem as if it were in motion.
Splash clearly looks like water rising up after a pebble has been thrown into it. Or
Melt, a lamp that, well, looks like it's melting. The show runs between the 2nd-25th of February, 2012.
Lower Silesia on the whole has a particular industrial history heavily rooted in ceramic design and craftsmanship. The Cieszyn Castle is devoted to a year-round programme of exhibitions on design, while also serving as an incubator bringing together art and business through various promotional projects. The region's Karkonoskie Museum in Jelenia Góra is also a significant hub for design shows. It recently opened the Light and Matter show, its first opening since the museum was renovated. The show is part of the fourth edition of the city's Festival of Light, presenting ceramic and lighting design from the past and presenting, with a special focus on the mid-1950s. The show presents two monographic shows, by Regina Włodarczyk-Puchał and Krystyna Cybińska, and a survey of works by several generations of students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław. The show runs between the 14th of January - 28th of March, 2012.
Poland at major design showcases this month
- Ceramic Art London 2012 at the Royal College of Art
24-26.2012
- Unpolished 12 at the Design Museum in Helsinki
10.02-04.03.2012
- Light and Matter at the Karkonoskie Museum in Jelenia Góra
14.01-28.03
- Porcelain Differently at BWA Wrocław
2-25.02.2011
- Nina Hole's Friends and Fire-mates at the Museum of International Ceramic Art in Middelfart, Denmark
15th of January - 8th of April, 2012.