Ewa Wawrzyniak was born in Poland and trained in ceramics and glass at Middlesex Polytechnic and Surrey Institute of Art and Design in the UK. She completed her Master of Arts at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland, where her research explored the technical and expressive possibilities of sand casting glass.
Ewa’s work is inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s book ‘The Poetics of Space’ and deals with the perceptions of a house as a ‘private space’. Always container, sometimes contained, the house serves in her work as the portal to metaphors of imagination. We need houses in order to dream, in order to imagine. These dreamscape sculptures are about vulnerability and protection. She explores how we experience intimate places and to what extent our memories and experiences from childhood influence our need for this ‘dream place’. The symbols she uses are very personal and therefore more intuitive than logical. The ‘streets’ are journeys towards a safe place. Every ‘street’ represents a different atmosphere, creates a different environment, and reflects a mood or expectation to be found upon reaching the ‘dream house’.
The method she uses to create her work is called sand-casting. It is a technique involving pouring hot glass into a mould made out of special, damp casting sand. It is a fast, free, and immediate method of working with glass, requiring a significant physical and energetic involvement of the creator. Ewa has selected this method to create her pieces as it permits a free and unrestricted expression of an idea.
Since 1999 Ewa has been a Part-Time Lecturer in Open Studies in Ceramics & Glass at University of Hertfordshire, UK, since 2003 till recently she was a regular Visiting Lecturer in Faculty of Art & Design (Glass) University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK.
Her work is widely collected by museums and galleries including Broadfield House Glass Museum Kingswinford, UK, North Lands Creative Glass Lybster, Scotland, and BWA Ksiaz, Poland, as well as many private collections in UK, Ireland, Scotland and USA.
Her commissioned works include: University of Cambridge Awards in 2021, Corrosion Institute Awards in 2021, Arts & Business East Awards and Art & Business South East Awards in 2007; Down Syndrome Ireland; Forfas Innovation Awards, Ireland; Royal Bank of Scotland; and various private commissions around the world.
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