DyploMy 2016 – exhibition at the YES Gallery in Poznan

On Friday, January 13, at the YES Gallery located on Paderewski St 7 in Poznan, an exhibition was held presenting the projects of graduate students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. If you are curious about what this place and the works presented looked like at the opening ceremony, sit back, read and enjoy.

YES Gallery

If you have ever had problems with finding unique jewelry created by Polish artists, it means only one thing: you have never been to the YES Gallery. This is a place where every year there are numerous exhibitions promoting Polish artists and jewelry designers. Gallery itself has existed since 1998, and was initiated by Maria Magdalena Kwiatkiewicz – a co-founder of YES and the owner of one of the largest collections of Polish goldsmith.

For many years, YES Gallery has been cooperating with, among others, the Department of Jewelry at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, so that young artists at the beginning of their path can present themselves to the world. This creates an opportunity for very creative meetings and exchange of opinions between students and guests visiting the gallery.

DyploMY

DyploMy is an event returning cyclically to the YES Gallery, which enables students to present practical part of the projects prepared for the defense of the Bachelor or Master thesis. In practice, this means that we can come across some solidly-made projects, which are fresh and represent bold vision of young artists.

I was struck with a large diversity of styles, techniques and materials used to create objects and jewelry presented at the exhibition. Firstly, it was connected with the fact that they were created in two different studios: Jewelry Design and Goldsmith Form Design. Secondly, the Lodz Academy of Fine Arts puts the emphasis on the individuality of each of the students studying there. Encouraged to creative experiments, they generate their own language of expression, style, and with its help create their own art.

This year, we could see the outcome of the graduation of 6 young artists: Sandra Bejm, Klaudia Ścigalska, Klaudia Stopa, Małgorzata Terka, Magda Lamch i Julia Myronchuk. Among the presented objects, apart from jewelry they were also handbags, everyday objects, watches.

The most interesting projects

Two of the diplomas caught my attention in particular. These were works by Magda Lamch and Małgorzata Terka.

The title of the work done by Magdalena Lamch was Modern patriotism. Subjective choice of patriotism in the jewelry collection. The collection was designed under the guidance of professor Andrzej Boss.

Małgorzata Terka, also under the guidance of professor Andrzej Boss, created a collection of kitchen gadgets that can be personalized for the customer, according to their wishes by choosing a suitable material, color or even a thumbprint.

The artist designed the elegant snack forks, personal juicers draining tea bags and holders holding the string of the tea bag to prevent it from falling into the cup. A creative collection of objects was also created to fasten open packages of loose products: separately for coffee or loose tea (folded object, with a special spoon) and separately for the packages, e.g. with spices (in the form of spiral paper clips). Interesting solutions are also separators put under the lid to prevent the contents of the pot from boiling over, and (my favorite gadget) a spoon grip – maintaining the spoon over the pot so that nothing else gets dirty.

Małgorzata Terka’s diploma is the result of accurate observation of everyday life and an offer of aesthetic, functional items to facilitate our daily tasks and respond to our needs.