Aleksandra Zawistowska — Chiaroscuro
With a bold lip line and Prada glasses , even in the glassworks, she’s a diva. Only those who don’t know her are surprised that someone can work the furnace with long nails. Friends call her frizzante (Italian for sparkling), because her loud laughter could scare away birds. Aleksandra Zawistowska has an unerring instinct for choosing mentors and boldly ventures into new directions, always guided by an inner compass.
She began working with glass after completing her architecture studies at the Warsaw University of Technology, during her time at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Since then, she has been a nomad - moving between Berlin and Kamenický Šenov in the Czech Republic, where she has carved out a path for herself. Faithful until recently to the amorphous material of glass , like a true postmodernist she has begun to expand her practice, reaching for new materials - stone, wood, metal and new techniques - casting, mirroring, plasma. She now confidently crosses not only geographic borders, but also the boundaries of disciplines and specializations, balancing on the edge between function and abstraction. With her latest collection, a new mark appeared on her artistic map: a crafts workshop in Opole. There, using the technique of sand casting, she created a series of aluminum candelabras, which she first prototyped and sculpted in foam over a long period.
This series of light objects emerged from a deep fascination with the Baroque - its totality, progressiveness, emotional intensity, performativity, and experimental spirit, its constant pushing of boundaries. Their architecture evokes the image of an irregular pearl (barocco), from which the period takes its name. Full of drama and dynamic form, the cold metal shapes are complemented by delicate, glowing glass jewels. The exhibition also includes some of her most recognizable works - heavy bowls, goblets, and vases; blown vessels as well as sculptures - all transparent, permeable, shaping sunlight reflections, distorting shadows and reflecting light, draped into theatrical structures, and installations referencing votive altars.
Chiaroscuro (from Italian chiaro “light” and scuro - “dark”) - the manipulation of light and play of contrast introduced into Baroque painting by artists like Caravaggio - became not only the theme of the collection and the exhibition, but also a metaphor for the artist’s practice, focused on bringing things out of the shadows, casting light on subjects that remain blind spots in dominant narratives. While her recent works created during a residency in the Arctic Circle reflected on growing conflicts over territories and Earth's resources, this new series - arranged as a syncretic journey - raises the question of whether and how we still experience moments of revelation, metaphysical chills, both personal and collective. It touches on a world that is holistic and interconnected - intellectual and spiritual at once.
Artist:
Artist, designer, and founder of Szkło Studio. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology and the Studio for Immediate Spaces at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Featured on the AD100 list and in BNO: Dutch Designers Magazine 2023. Finalist of the Kunszt: More Light program by the Starak Family Foundation, and recipient of a scholarship from UrbanGlass in New York. She has participated in artist residencies including the Arctic Circle Expedition and the Baltic Gallery of Contemporary Art in Ustka. Recognized for “Stretching the Definition of Design” by GLUE Amsterdam and named a “New Talent 2023” by Object Rotterdam. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Museum of the Earth in Warsaw, Nilufar Gallery in Milan, and R&Company in New York. Her projects are currently on view at Romantic Brutalism at Villa Gawrońskich and Regeneration at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Partners:
Grono, Galilou,
Set design: Krawiec Wnętrz Manufaktura
Past exhibition
Aleksandra Zawistowska — Chiaroscuro
Niepokorność, to jej najpiękniejsza cecha– mówi o porcelanie Monika Patuszyńska. I brzmi to, jakby mówiła o sobie samej. Wibrujące „r”, które pojawia się, kiedy wypowiada to słowo zwraca uwagę, podobnie jak każda forma, którą sygnuje stemplem „PATU”. Buntuje się przeciwko wizerunkowi rzemieślniczki w fartuchu, choć przyznaje, że zamiast diamentów woli piłę, młotek czy taker. Nie interesują ją kanony, zasady, tworzenie poprawnych wzorów do serwantek, ale ciągły eksperyment, przesuwanie granicy tego, co można i co wolno zrobić z materiałem.
