VAA Gallery "Akademija" presents solo exhibitions of two authors Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska and Dmitrij Buławka-Fankidejski. Both authors are lecturers at the Art Academy in Gdansk, Poland. They create in the field of ceramics and use alternative firing techniques in their work, which are still very rare in Lithuania. In their self-designed gas-fired mobile ceramic firing kilns, the authors perform unique ceramic firings - coppermate, foil saggar, fuming, raku and others - in a highly interactive and performative manner. Together with the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, they organizes and leads the plein-air "Ceramics alternatively" in Poland. The works presented in this exhibition reveal the intricacies of these unique firing technologies with various shades and mysterious effects.
Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska „Implicited“
Opening: 2024 June 26, 6:00 p.m
Exhibition period: 26.06.2024 - 22.07.2024
The presentation is a result of research into the expressive form of ceramic sculpture as a potential to enliven the senses. Using a classical modelled ceramic form, which depends on touch and warmth from the beginning of its creation, Alicja turns to direct sensation, an authentic experience. She looks for a way to break the visual distance in favor of physical contact with the object. Direct attention to the sense of touch, pointing out the possibility of discovering the "second layer" of the object, its true, hidden meaning. Touchless contemplation can only focus on the outer surface of the shell.
The visual part of this presentation is the group of spatial objects and large-scale `ceramic illustrations', made of stoneware clay and cordierite tiles, and gas fired using alternative techniques. The opaque thermo-sensitive coating is starting point to engage the viewer. It is an impulse to revise perception and imagination and brings to life an animated, complete picture of the whole. Intimate contact, direct dialogue, and transmission of human hands' warmth reveal what is usually hidden. At the same time, the act of creation is completed through creative interaction and cooperation with the viewer. The process interacts in time and the thermal energy retained in the clay structure for a more prolonged moment appears as a trace of integrated, external action on the form.
Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska (b. 1983) studied at the Faculty of Sculpture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Since 2013 she has worked as an assistant in the Studio of Ceramics at the Faculty of Sculpture and Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk. In 2022, she received her doctorate in art.
Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska works mainly in artistic ceramics, and moves in alternative methods of firing ceramics (gas kilns of her own design). She is fascinated by the experimental approach to creative activities related to ceramics. Together with the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, she organizes and leads the plein-air "Ceramics alternatively". She was awarded the Award of Excellence for her ceramic work "Into the Wild" in Cluj International Ceramics Biennale, Museum of Art, Cluj - Napoca, Romania in 2015. She became the winner of the Award of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk in 2015, 2021 and 2022.
She exhibits her ceramic objects in 8 personal exhibitions (Poland, Denmark) and has participated in many competitive exhibitions and symposiums in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, France, the Czech Republic, and Denmark.
Curator of the exhibition: Rasa Justaitė-Gecevičienė
Partners: Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, VIlnius Art Academy, Fine Art Gallery in Wrocław, Department of Sculpture and Intermedia.
