The exhibition features over a dozen works by Magda Jurek from her latest collection POLA. Inspired by the monumental ceramic art of the modernist era and the formal experiments of op art, it is a series of ceramic compositions formally similar to paintings. The artist and designer, known to the public as Pani Jurek, develops her colour-based visual language through the medium of ceramics.

 

The paintings exhibited are also a foreshadowing of future large-format works. They combine a disciplined approach to design and the artistic intuition of Magda Jurek, the founder of the studio, a graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (diploma in painting). Discipline is expressed in the repetition of ceramic modules, which allows the artist to adapt the size of the compositions to a particular space; while intuition is expressed in the juxtaposition of elements and in the works’ unique painterly layer.

 

POLA (English: FIELDS) is a series of ceramic artworks inspired by the abstract world of op-art and the monumental ceramic art of the modernist era. The tile compositions combine vibrant colours with spatial patterns. Their geometric, convex surfaces invite the play of light, while their contrasting textures of glossy and matte glaze and engobe elicit the sense of touch. The hand-glazed modules captivate the eye with their rich hues and depth. The colours accentuate the tiles’ geometric shapes. Even the shadows have colour. 

 

The joy of creation speaks loud in these compositions, as does precision, as seen especially in the gradient transition of the glazes, which closely resembles subtle pencil shading. Ceramics, where the colours cannot be seen before firing –  you use colours you imagine” (Bolesław Książek) – is an art that requires excellent craftsmanship and a painterly imagination. 

 

The ceramic works exhibited straddle abstract and figurative painting, and echo some the works of Wojciech Fangor, Fernand Léger, Kazimierz Malevich, and Stefan Gierowski. The idea for the collection sprang from a fascination with the “Wizard of Łysa Góra”, ceramicist Bolesław Książek. The Kamionka Folk and Artistic Industry Cooperative, which Książek ran from 1951, operated in Łysa Góra, producing large-scale ceramic compositions for architecture in collaboration with artists. It would be wonderful to see POLA/FIELDS on a much larger scale one day. The collection received an award as part of MUST HAVE ŁDF 2024.