Virtual exhibition of the sculpture “Alchemy” by Aleksandra Kujawska.

The virtual exhibition of the sculpture "Alchemy" by Aleksandra Kujawska inaugurates the cooperation between Warsaw Marriott Hotel and Limited Edition Contemporary Art Gallery - the organizers of the event. Joining the forces of the gallery and the Warsaw Marriott Ho-tel in promoting Polish art is an extremely important step for the popularization of artists' work. The Warsaw Marriott Hotel, as part of its patronage and for the purposes of this project, made available the spaces of the newly renovated Presidential Suite. This made it possible to show the exhibition of Aleksandra Kujawska's works in a slightly different context. The glass sculptures harmonize with the apartment's interiors, furniture, everyday objects. At 260 square meters of qua-drates of world-class design, designed by the owner of the Warsaw Marriott Hotel himself, you can see and imagine how the objects will look in the homes of art collectors.

Providing access to the presidential suite is a special opportunity to view its interiors and exhibition from virtually anywhere on earth and at any time. Thanks to our partner, Skan360, we have created for the exhibition a virtual walk-through also for those viewers who would not have had the opportunity to see the apartment in other circumstances. Democratizing the luxurious interiors of the Warsaw Marriott Hotel, out of reach of most people, is an important part of the project.

Limited Edition Gallery has accompanied Aleksandra Kujawska in her creative journey since 2020. The artist does not recognize compromise. If the sculpture does not meet her expectations - she destroys it. Her entire life is subordinated to creation. At the same time, she has extensive knowledge in many fields, which allows her to create unique objects. The title of the exhibition "Alchemy" is a metaphor, referring to the artist's work. Just as alchemists were said to turn lead into gold, Ola turns sand, limestone and sodium into glass lava, from which, using primitive tools, she sculpts her objects. However, in order for the whole process to take place, you need a smelter and a close-knit team of highly skilled metallurgists. Ola believes that access to the smelter is the same as oxygen for her as an artist. Without the smelter, Ola cannot create metallurgical objects, and creation is life for her. Therefore, thanks to the support of the exhibition's partners - the Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Góra and the Tadeusz Wrześniak Economic Glassworks Sp. z o.o. - who made their furnaces, specialized studios and resources available to the artist, the objects of high artistic value presented here could be created. The role of these institutions in the project is special.

Not insignificant are also the objects created in the iconic Krakow Glassworks - the Institute of Ceramics and Building Materials - a place with nearly a century of tradition, where artistic objects designed, among others, were created. By Jerzy Słuczan-Orkusz - one of the pioneers of glass design in Poland.

The project also includes prominent media patrons: wysokieobcasy.pl, artinfo.pl,

Format, design.doc, Glass and Ceramics, New Vegetable Art Gallery, Gdansk Community. Thanks to them, the exhibition will be widely communicated and reach a wide audience. For without the viewer, the exhibition is meaningless.

The virtual exhibition will run from June 6 to September 30, 2023. It will be available for viewing on the gallery's website: www.limitededition.pl.

Aleksandra Kujawska

is a highly regarded sculptor and designer, specializing in art glass. She was born and grew up in Poland. She graduated from the State High School of Fine Arts in Jelenia Góra - Cieplice with a profile of artistic glass in the studio of Władysław Czyszczoń. Graduate, post-graduate and doctoral studies of the Department of Glass, Department of Ceramics and Glass at the St. Thomas Academy of Fine Arts. E. Geppert in Wroclaw. She defended her master's degree in the studio of Applied Glass under the direction of Professor Kazimierz Pawlak. She later undertook postgraduate studies: Glass in architecture - specializing in stained glass under the supervision of Professor Ryszard Więckowski. After that, she completed the Interdepartmental Doctoral Studies at the St. Michael's Academy of Fine Arts. E. Geppert in Wroclaw. Currently, the artist is preparing to defend her doctoral thesis.

Aleksandra Kujawska has participated in many group and solo exhibitions internationally over the years. Her works have been presented in renowned galleries and exhibitions in Paris, London, Milan, Luxembourg, Venice, Sofia, Dresden, Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Lodz, Gdynia and Poznan. Her work has been recognized by jurors and has won many awards, such as first place in the International Glass Art Competition "Glass Improvisation," first place in the "visions" category of the "Furniture Diamond" competition, and "Must Have" awards at the Lodz Design Festival in 2020, 2021 and 2023. Her work has also been recognized in competitions, such as the iconic "Good Design 2021" Institute of Industrial Design, first place in the "crafts" category and a special mention in the "Design Educated 2021" competition in Germany.

Aleksandra Kujawska's works are in the collections of renowned institutions such as the Karkonosze Museum, the National Museum in Wroclaw and the Gallery of Polish Design at the National Museum in Warsaw. Her talent and commitment to the art of glass have been recognized by the awarding of scholarships and grants, including. Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, Urban Glass in New York and Pilchuck Glass School in the USA.

Aleksandra Kujawska not only creates unique artworks, but also engages in curatorial activities, organizing exhibitions. She is also the author of publications on glass art. Starting in 2020. collaborates with Limited Edition gallery, which promotes her work.

MAJOR AWARDS

• "Furniture Diamond 2018," 1st place in the "Visions" category, 2018. Warsaw
• "Must Have 2020" competition finalist, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland.
• "Good Design 2021", finalist, 1st place in the category "Craft", Institute of Industrial Design, Warsaw, Poland.
• "Must Have 2021" competition finalist, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland.
• "Design Educated 2021", international competition, honorable mention, Germany
• "Must Have 2023", competition finalist, 1st place in the category "Crafts", Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS

Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland, 2015; Urban Glass, New York, USA, 2019; Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, USA, 2020; Ministry of Culture and Arts and National Heritage, Warsaw, Poland, 2021; Ministry of Culture and Arts and National Heritage, Warsaw, Poland, 2023.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Poland:

2019 - Schoolgirl. Backhome. Karkonosze Museum, Jelenia Góra

2017 - Dipping, Wawa Design Festival, Warsaw, Poland.

2016 - IN YOUR ROOM, Glass and Ceramics Institute, Krakow, Poland.

2016 - Botanicum, Nature Museum, Jelenia Góra

2016 - Wawa Design Festival, Glass Garden, Warsaw.

Foreign Countries:

2015 - Tent London, London, United Kingdom

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS ABROAD

2022 - The Venice Glass Weeks, Glass_on. Have we ever dreamt about it? Venice, Italy

2021 - Glass Biennale, Sofia, Bulgaria

2021 - The Venice Glass Week, Glass_on. Lets meet inbetter times., Venice, Italy

2021 - European Glass Festival, Asselnborn, Luxembourg

2017 - Polish designers, Tent London, London, United Kingdom

2017 - der die das, Schloss Konigshain, Germany

2017 - La carte et le territoire, La Galerie du Crous de Paris, Paris, France.

2016 - Eurocuccina, Polish design, Milan, Italy.

2015 - Tent London, London, United Kingdom

2015 - EXPO 2015, Milan, Italy

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS IN POLAND

2023 - Polish Review, Academy of Fine Arts named after him. E. Geppert in Wroclaw

2023 - See Glass, Vivid Gallery, European Glass Festival, Wrocław, Poland.

2022 - TopTen of Polish Design, Vzory Gallery, Poznan.

2022 - Limited Edition, 10/10", Łazienki Królewskie - Stara Oranżeria, Warsaw.

2021 - "Good Design" exhibition, Institute of Industrial Design, Warsaw, Poland

2021 - Must Have 2021, Sculptures TOYS, Lodz Design Festival, Lodz.

2021 - Asymmetry, Art on the Spot, Wroclaw, Poland.

2021 - The best polish designers, Elle Decoration, Elektrociepłownia, Warsaw, Poland

2020 - Sense, Glass and Ceramics Institute, Krakow, Poland

2020 - Must Have 2020, Moon glasses, Łódź Design Festival

2019 - Elements, Nanazenite, Warsaw

2018 - Mixtures of culture, Brewery, Wrocław, Poland

2018 - From the nature of things, Warsaw Home, Poland Design Festival, Warsaw, Poland.

2017 - Design Gallery, National Museum in Warsaw

2017 - Courage, Warsaw Home, Warsaw, Poland

2016 - Botanicum, Natural History Museum, Jelenia Góra

2016 - Wawa Design Festival, Glass Garden, Warsaw.

2016 - EcoMade 2016, Academy of Fine Arts. W. Strzeminski, Lodz

2016 - The Highest Level, National Museum in Wroclaw

2016 - Gdynia Design Days, Well designed, Gdynia

2016 - Wawa Design Festival, Glass Class, Warsaw, Poland.

2016 - Wroclove Design Festival, Process, Wroclaw.

2016 - Retrospections, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź.

2015 - Process I Change, Institute of Design, Kielce.

WIESLAWA WIDERYNSKA

Art historian, certified curator in the field of contemporary art, author of critical texts on art, as well as organizer of many permanent and temporary exhibitions

Glass has accompanied man for a very long time. Over the years it has served various functions, from magical to utilitarian. The process of creating an object from glass has a certain mystique to it. In the technology of making glass objects is placed the mystery, which is contained in the question: how from a substance without a form of its own, burning lava, composed mainly of sand, quartz, soda and limestone, objects of extraordinary beauty are created? Glass, on the one hand, is classified as a solid due to its brittleness and rigidity, but its structure qualifies it as a liquid. For this reason, glass transmutation has the hallmarks of witchcraft. This is true alchemy. In order to work with such a demanding material, artists who create in this medium, in addition to the creativity of a sense of form, thinking in 3D with regard to the various optical properties of glass, including the interpenetration of color, must have extensive knowledge in various fields, glass technology, chemistry, operation of specialized equipment and machinery. Only such a holistic approach in glass design guarantees the creation of something special, unique, having the characteristics of a work of art.

In our daily lives, the world of glass, as we know it best, contains mainly a utilitarian function in addition to an aesthetic one. Speaking of the long tradition of Polish glass, it is impossible to omit the bygone era, which gave us glass objects of mainly utilitarian function, now appreciated on the art market. But also among the designers of the communist era, such as. Wszewłod Sarnecki, Eryka and Jan Drost, Bogdan Kupczyk, Kazimierz Krawczyk, Czesław Zuber, Zbigniew Horbowy, Jerzy Słuczan Orkusz, Marian Gołogórski, Zofia Pasek, Regina and Aleksander Puchał, Wiesław Sawczuk, Barbara Urbańska-Miszczyk, Maria Słaboń and many others, we have examples of artwork that deviates in form and purpose from the tradition then ascribed to glass objects. For example, we can mention the sculptures of the precursor of abstract glass sculpture Henryk Albin Tomaszewski, as well as Ludwik Kiczura, Wladyslaw Czyszczon, Ireneusz Kizinski and the still-creating Cracow master Marian Gologorski.

Aleksandra Kujawska is currently continuing the creative path of her predecessors, referencing tradition in her work, which she reinterprets. Fulfilling his own need for creativity, he brings to life unique glass works using traditional smelting techniques. The glass sculpture, depending on the technique, is created from a few days to several months. In addition to design, the artist's work consists of shaping the glass inky substance using a number of different glassmaking techniques, such as using wooden molds, as well as without a metallurgical mold, using so-called "glassmaking" techniques. by hand, that is, shaped hot without the use of a mold, using metallurgical tools. Other techniques, such as kiln-forming, involve smelting sculptures in quartz disposable molds made from a 1:1 model in clay, and then they are worked in what is known as a "kiln-forming" process. Cold techniques, i.e. on the grinding shop, using machines. Another kiln technique used in glass work is slumping, which is the use of gravity to shape glass, or patte de verre, which is the molding of an object by melting ground glass in a mold made of sand by hand. In her work on the sculpture, the artist uses metallurgical tools and instruments or those adapted by her to work in the smelter, such as a pitchfork, adding her experience, constant desire to experiment, imagination and the artistic talent necessary in this case. All of this produces glass masterpieces from hot, uncontrollable, light-emitting and incandescent glass lava at 1,200 degrees.

Creating and at the same time writing texts about glass and its creators, Aleksandra Kujawska successfully fights for the place of objects made of this very demanding and noble material - glass - in the world of high art. Her visionary realizations in glass, backed by a diligent craftsmanship, are stunning in form, color and texture. Glass is a material in which corrections are impossible, all steps in the stages of implementation must be precisely planned and executed. As the mentor, champion and friend Prof. Zbigniew Horbowy: "Glass is for decisive people."

Aleksandra Kujawska's glass sculptures contain the artist's intention and the viewer's sensitivity. In her work, the artist focuses on the primal needs of today's individual to contact nature and community. It deals with areas concerning the desires and emotions of a person related to the loss of these ties and the need to regain them. Its goal is to make modern man realize that he is an inseparable part of nature, with which he has lost contact and forgotten its existence. It definitely does not instruct, rather it focuses on self-awareness and the accompanying emotion, need, longing and fear. In his work, he wishes to describe these aspects.

In her creative explorations, Aleksandra Kujawska prefers experiments with color and shape over embellishments, unless they stem from the nature of the things she uses as forms. Also close to her emotions is stained glass, in which the artist obtained a specialization at the "Glass in Architecture" postgraduate program. But what is closest to her is contained in 3D, which is sculpture, thinking with form.

The "Alchemy" exhibition showcased sculptures made in several glassblowing techniques: kiln-formed and metallurgical (using wooden molds and forms assembled one at a time from branches, tree bark, waste, and the "by hand" technique without the use of a mold).

These are very different techniques, requiring different skills to work with glass. The first one - stoving - requires great patience due to the long process of creating the work. The artist uses it herself from start to finish, focusing in silence and solitude on the work. The second technique - metallurgy - requires the chemistry of the metallurgical team, perfect operation in a team of metallurgists cooperating with the artist with plastic, whimsical, fluid matter, where speed and precise actions count.

Glass sculptures made by Aleksandra Kujawska are in museum and private collections in Poland and abroad.

IWONA ŁAWECKA-MARCZEWSKA

Editor-in-chief and creator of design.doc. Long-time editor-in-chief of "Dobre Wnętrze", curator, expert and juror of design competitions. Author of publications in the field of design and art

Aleksandra Kujawska loves glass. With reciprocity. Like few others, he feels and understands them. The origins of this unique relationship date back to her childhood, when as a teenager she collected slides from the street delighted by their color and matter. With her childhood treasures, she was transported in her dreams to, as she says, "better, magical worlds." Today, the artist's works take viewers on a journey into the depths of her imagination, which finds expression in beautiful light-sensitive forms and colors.

- When I look into the embers of the glass lava in the smelter, I have an almost metaphysical feeling every time that I am communing with living matter. Glass in liquid form radiates, shines, lives. Its beauty and the magic of its changing state of aggregation are incredible. From a speck of quartz sand, through the liquid phase, to any solid form given by human hand. In a solid state of matter, transparent or packaged. With optical properties that reflect their inner worlds to infinity. Crisp and tender. Strong and durable. Full of contrasts and contradictions. Fascinating," Aleksandra Kujawska colorfully tells about the glass. Every visit to the smelter, when she supervises the process and participates in the creation of glass, is an event for the artist - a great holiday. The fulfillment that is painted on her face when she creates cannot be compared with anything. When he starts talking about working at the steel plant, he immediately smiles. In her travels between the steel cities, the Wroclaw Academy of Fine Arts, with which she is associated, and her beloved Gdynia, where she now lives, she is accompanied by her daughter Helena, who, as the artist says, "follows the glass road with me." Both are vegetarians. They love and respect the animals whose rights they fight for.

The natural world is very close to Aleksandra Kujawska, which is reflected in her works. The artist is preoccupied with the relationship between man and nature. He is trying to figure out why a person moves away from her, and at the same time misses her. Her works have deeply humanistic overtones. They express strong emotions and equally affect the viewer. They ask questions without giving clear answers, they make us reflect on the human condition, values, truth. In them, the author refers to literature, art history, mythology. Many of the works are personal in nature. She is a very versatile artist, using a variety of techniques.

The artist has great respect for the great figures she encountered on her creative path, such as Wladyslaw Czyszczon, Zbigniew Horbowy, Krystyna Cybinska, Malgorzata Dajewska, Wszewlod Sarnecki, Bogdan Kupczyk, Eryka and Jan Drost, Marian Gologorski. Many of them have become the protagonists of the articles she publishes, and with some of them she has not only a master-disciple relationship, but also a friendly one. Aleksandra Kujawska contributes to the glass artist community. She is the curator of

exhibitions, sits on the jury of competitions, participates in panel discussions, conducts workshops. She is the recipient of prestigious awards, including Dobry Wzór, must have!, Design Educated, and the recipient of scholarships and grants, including from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Urban Glass NYC/USA, Pilchuck Glass School/USA. Her works have been presented in many solo and group exhibitions in Poland and abroad, including London, Paris, Venice and Milan.