The opening was jointly hosted by Bolesławiec Deputy Mayor Kornel Filipowicz and Museum of Ceramics Director Anna Bober-Tubaj, while a brief speech was delivered by Piotr Wieczorek, president of the Lower Silesian branch of ZPAP. The exhibition opening was attended by Prof. Ewa Twarowska-Sioda of the University of the Arts in Poznań, Prof. Mirosław Kociński and Adriana Sarnowicz of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, ceramic artists and sculptors Elżbieta Grosseová, Krystyna Gay-Kutschenreiter, Anna Stawiarska, Władysław Garnik and Michał Puszczyński, as well as Iwona Siewierska, a well-known collector of contemporary sculpture. The numerous guests also included a large group of students from the studio run by the exhibition’s author.
The works presented at the exhibition are a selection of pieces created over the past several years by one of the most talented contemporary sculptors working in clay. A large group consists of rotational forms from the BALAST series, in which the artist combines grogged clay with materials such as straps, metal, rope, canvas and rubber. The exhibition also features sculptures from the Parzyste, Nieparzyste collection, comprising a set of geometric forms arranged in pairs or groups. These works are complemented by the artist’s newest pieces, presented for the first time.
Most of the sculptures were made from grogged clay. The artist attaches great importance to the firing process, which is why the works on display include forms fired in a wood-fired kiln, produced through reduction firing in a muffle kiln, and fired in gas and electric kilns. The Clay Story exhibition is a unique dialogue between the artist and clay as a material, as well as an exploration of the potential concealed in the secrets of the craft, in pursuit of harmony between the form and its surface, between the character of the material and the method of constructing the form and firing it. Prof. Rozpondek himself describes the presentation as follows: “the Clay Story exhibition is an emanation of my special relationship with the material.” The curator of the exhibition is Anna Bober-Tubaj, director of the Museum of Ceramics. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue containing an extensive interview with Professor Rozpondek, conducted by Dr Barbara Banaś, curator of the Department of Contemporary Ceramics and Glass at the National Museum in Wrocław.
Krzysztof Rozpondek was born in 1961 and graduated from the Faculty of Ceramics and Glass at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Wrocław, receiving his diploma in 1987 from the studio of Prof. K. Cybińska. In 2012, he was awarded the title of professor of fine arts. He was head of the Department of Ceramics at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław from 2002 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2012. In 2009, he was appointed to the Programme Council of the Polish Sculpture Centre in Orońsko, and in 2013 to the Scientific Council of the bimonthly Szkło i Ceramika. He is a member of the interdisciplinary creative group OŚcienia. He has organised numerous firings of ceramic objects in field kilns: Hungarian, raku and sawdust kilns. He has participated in plein-air workshops and symposia in Bolesławiec (1991, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000), Kamieniec Ząbkowicki (1996), Koło (2013), Lubin (2001), Luboradów (2007, 2008), Orońsko (2008, 2009), Stare Gronowo (1990), Tułowice (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990), Wałbrzych (1992, 2006), Zduny (2010, 2014), as well as in Glindow (1995) and Willebadessen (1992) in Germany, Kohila (2006) in Estonia, Eskisehir (2009) in Turkey, Zvartava (2012) in Latvia, Kalinov (2003), and as a special guest in Zeleny Mlyn (2013) in Slovakia. He received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage in 2008; in 2011 he was awarded the Badge of Merit for Polish Culture, and in 2013 the Gold Honorary Badge of Merit for the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Individual exhibitions: • Jak wiele innych – ogródek, BWA, Wrocław 1991; • Ceramika, Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, Wrocław 1996; • Ceramika z pieca węgierskiego…, BOK Gallery, Bolesławiec 2000, Na Solnym Gallery, Wrocław 2001 – ZO ZPAP Work of the Year Award; • Ceramika, Epicentrum Gallery, Jastrzębie Zdrój 2001; • Leżące, BWA, Wrocław 2001; • …ET CARBO, Epicentrum Gallery, Jastrzębie Zdrój 2003; • ceRamiKa, BWA, Wrocław 2004; • Lapidarium, E.T. Gallery, Głogów 2005; • Lapidarium II, Epicentrum Gallery, Jastrzębie Zdrój 2005; • OSTre, Museum of Ceramics, Bolesławiec 2006; • Parzyste, nieparzyste, Oranżeria Gallery, CRP, Orońsko 2008, MM Gallery, Chorzów, Glass and Ceramics Gallery, BWA, Wrocław 2009; • Zgładzona, Rotunda Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts, Poznań 2010; • GLInaNAgli, NOWA Gallery, Poznań 2010; • Wynurzenia, St. Jadwiga Bastion, Nysa 2011; • Droga gliny, Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts, Wrocław 2011; • Nie tylko Balast, Museum of the Silesian Piasts, Brzeg 2012; • Balast – konfiguracje, Chapel Gallery, CRP, Orońsko 2014; • Ecce Lutum, Gallery R, Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, Kraków 2015, Collegium ARS Art Centre, Chojnice 2015; Selected group exhibitions: • 4th International Ceramic Exhibition, Vienna, Austria 2009; • Without Borders, Saint Petersburg, Russia 2011; • Art Now, Brussels, Belgium 2011; • Space Between Us, Wiesbaden, Germany 2012; • 30 et quelques tapirs entêtés viennent de Lettonie, Galerie terres d’Aligre, Paris, France 2013; • Kolekcja czyli Pasja, Prague 2013, Bratislava 2014. Works in the collections of: • National Museum in Wrocław; • National Museum in Poznań; • Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec; • E. Geppert Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław; • Museum of the Prudnik Region in Prudnik; • Novohrad Museum in Lučenec, Slovakia.