In my work, I reach for the sources. When I started to get involved in ceramics, I found a washed up brick at a beach made out of beautiful, red clay. In my hands, I was holding a ceramic element and at the same time, many years of history, thousands of anecdotes, large and small buildings, millions of people all over the world who process clay. From this moment on, becoming a ceramist is linked to the constant acquisition of knowledge about my predecessors and their creations. Both those who created tableware and those who made bricks.
Combining the old with the new, the found with the made, the unwanted with the re-created, the natural with the produced makes up my artistic language.
I am curious about the curves of time providing for the non-repeatable repeatability of phenomena. I watch; I translate changes and movement into my own language. I don’t comment on the encountered situation directly. I construct artefacts and spaces, thought-provoking, breaking out from the rhythm of everyday life. Sometimes, the use of found objects, changed by the passage of time, introduces the past into the beholder’s present, invokes time as the source of transformation. Alternatively, my works give the impression of ‘functionality’. The viewer is then faced with these questions: What is their purpose? How can they be used? How does form change in time and space?
The practise itself consists of thorough craftsmanship engagement, systematic repetitions, in which one finished piece improves the subsequent one. Of understanding the material and its properties. Of experimenting with its capabilities and my limitations.
Olga Milczyńska
Born in 1982 in Poland.
Education:
2012 - 2014 Master’s Degree, Faculty of Art Education, University of Fine Arts, Poznan, Poland
2009 - 2011 Diploma ofThe Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, Center for Glass and Ceramics, Bornholm, Denmark
2005 - 2006 Bornholms Hojskole, AAkierkeby, Denmark
2001 - 2005 Bachelor’s Degree in International Culture, Faculty of International and Politics Studies,
Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
2000 - 2004 Fashion Design School, Cracow, Poland
Work experience:
2020 curator od an exhibition Progress does not exist", Łódź Design Festival, Poland
2019 curator of an exhibition “Making things” , Łódź Design Festival, Poland
2019 cofounder of Association Nów. New Craft Poland
2016 cofounder of august design studio
2015 Ceramic expert in the project ”New life of smoked ceramics” financed by Polish Ministry of Culture.
2012 Present, Teacher at University of Social Science and Humanities, Design Department - School of Form, Poznan, Poland
2011 - 2012 Head of ceramic workshop at University of Social Science and Humanities, Design Department School of Form, Poznan, Poland
Practice at:
Marek Cecuła, Poland
Kim Dae Woong, South Korea
Maya and Nicolas Rousseau, France
Anne Mette Hjortshoj, Denmark
Martin McWilliam, Germany
Nic Collins, England
Exhibitions
2022 Nów w Pełni.
2021 Nów w Pełni. Annual show of Nów. New Craft Poland.
2021 In the Cave......... Łódź Design Festival
2020 Nów w Pełni. Annual Show of Nów. New Craft Poland.
2020 Zeitgeist, Dutch Design Week, online
2020 Progress does not exist, Łódź Design Festival, Poland
2020 Forms of the future, Arena Design, Poznań, Poland
2019 Nów w pełni, annual exhibition of Nów. Nowe Rzemiosło
2019 „ Girls to the workshop”, Institut of Design, Kielce, Poland
2019 Indonesia Contemporary Ceramic Biennale, Jatiwangi Art Factory, Indonesia
2019 collaboration with Anna Szaflarski: „It filled Wells, it pleased the Pools”
„Between Swimming and Dryland” w Kunstverein Reutlingen, Niemcy
2019 „Is colar a colour” Łódź Design Festival, Budapest Design Week
2018 August – Irina Grishina, Olga Milczyńska, Galeria BB, Wrocław
2018 The Other Side of Things. Polish Design After 1989. National Museum in Cracow, Poland
2018 PolishUp, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland
2017 Must Have! Birds, Łódź Design Festival, Łódź, Poland
2017 Colors and Structurer, Stara Kopalnia, Wałbrzych, Poland
2017 A Storm That Cannot Be Seen, Gdynia Design Days, Gdynia, Poland
2017 Lust, inSPIRACJE Festival, Szczecin Poland
2016 Młodzi na start, ELLE Decoration, Łódź Design Festival, Piotrwowska OFF, Łódź,
2016 Młodzi na start, ELLE Decoration, Gdynia Design Days, Gdynia, Poland
2016 „Must Have” 10/960 Siwaki, Łódź Design Festival
2015 online show at Elia Now – Europe’s emerging artist festival
2015 “Simple Constructions” a solo show at gallery Łęctwo, Poznań, Poland
2014 “Lust”, Site specific installation in Poznan, Poland
2014 M. Dokowicz Competition, Exhibition at Arsenal Gallery, Poznań, Poland
2014 Nexo Skulptur 2014, Sculpture Festival, Nexo Denmark
2013 “Bitter- Bitter”, group exhibition at Art Uniwersity, Poznań, Poland
2013 Nexo Skulptur 2013, Sculpture Festival, Nexo, Denmark
2013 International Ceramic Festival, Mungyoung, South Korea
2013 “Trade Combined”, Exhibition at ASP Muzeum, Wrocław, Poland
2012 Nexo Skulptur 2012, Sculpture Festival, Nexo, Denmark
2011 International Ceramic Assecory Exhibition, Seoul, South Korea
2011 “Flow”, Dym, Cracow, Poland
2011 Exhibition at Kunstmuseet Bornholm, Holmen, Designer Zoo,
Malmø Form/Designcenter and Coburg Glasmuseum in Germany
with the graduation show, “Crash and Burn”
2010 “Olga’s Dream”, Gallery Orum, Seul, South Korea,
2010 “Particular Wave”, Gallery Vang, Bornholm, Denmark
Publication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D7eEpy_fCU&t=45s
https://www.vogue.pl/a/nowe-zycie-rzemiosla
http://www.elia-artschools.org/festival/work/where-art-thou
http://www.trendtablet.com/19995-olga-milczynska/
Olga Milczyńska is a part of Nów. New Craft Poland and part of Homo Faber Guide
Contact :
The studio is in Warsaw, ul Brzozowa 6/8a lok 1/2
Vsits by appointment.
write: olga.milczynska@gmail.com or call + 48 509359793