The Approaching
Fullness
Spheres from three hundred thousand years ago carried the imprints of human hands. These carry mine.
Kasia Białek
A sociologist from the University of Wrocław who chose clay. A studio near Warsaw — pine forest, a dune, two kilns; nearly twenty years with stoneware fired at 1220°C, her own clay body, glazes laid down like paint. She learned ceramics from the craftsmen and artists of the Wrocław Keramos association.
“I leave room… I disappear. I let things happen. The kiln begins its work. I wait. Matter has a life of its own.”
Exhibits at the BWA Municipal Gallery in Bydgoszcz (“Nów w Pełni / Beyond the Object”, 2026) · the subject of features by Mariusz Szczygieł (“A Kinswoman of Stone”, Wysokie Obcasy Extra) and Anna Maruszeczko (“The Sense of Fragility”, Post Scriptum) · member of Nów. Nowe Rzemiosło (New Craft).
Zbliżająca się pełnia
The Approaching Fullness
“My ceramics may not catch the eye — but they will catch the hand. They are for feeling, for experiencing the structure of stone — made with the intention of solace.”
- Pełnia I — mineral, rough; a moon after erosion unique · inquire
- Pełnia II — banded, a horizon written in the glaze unique · inquire
- Pełnia III — smooth, celadon, quiet unique · inquire
Each sphere exists singly. The forms take weeks; the firing is irreversible — not all of them survive the trial of fire. Favourite vessels are signed on the base: month / year / number.
Rozwarcie — a series of 26 objects (2023)
“Rozwarcie 12 cm is one of a series of vases, each of them a separate story. It speaks of the bond between earth and the moment of birth. I am inspired by the womb. Made of clay, it sends my thoughts to the universal place where life renews itself. Rozwarcie — dilation — means opening, the emergence of the new: a powerful moment that joins all beings.”
h. 22 cm · opening ⌀ 12 cm · 10 from a collection of 26 · the artist’s studio, 8 March 2023
A work from the series sold at auction (Pragaleria, 2023). Each piece signed on the base — month / year / number:
Availability — by inquiry.
Here live the objects. Her functional ceramics — at kasiabialekceramika.pl.
A Record of Memory
Exhibitions ▾
- NÓW W PEŁNI / Beyond the Object — BWA Municipal Gallery, Bydgoszcz IV–VI 2026
35 makers of the Polish new craft; curated by Monika Osinkowska. From the curatorial text: “works closer to art objects than to utilitarian things… a record of thinking and doing.” · gallery film ↗
- Samorost — Thymka Studio, Warsaw 21–22 III 2026
A sensory experience for the spring equinox, “when light prevails over darkness”.
- Wnikam — with Aga Tymińska (Thymka), an immersive exhibition 6 XII 2025
“Eyes closed, we listen to a radio play; through thickets we touch strange vessels, we eat stones, and a floral, rooty scent hangs in the air.” Photo: Magdalena Czapla Matuszewska (Runo Workshop).
- Anioły Rzemiosła — laureate-finalist, Palace on the Isle, Royal Łazienki XI 2023
“Working on the border of craft and art is dust, sweat and tears rather than a ball.”
- Contemporary Artistic Ceramics — auction, Pragaleria 2023
Words — the artist’s texts ▾
Stone 2024
“Stone delights me, so I turn clay into pale sandstones, green malachites and agates. I carry small pebbles in my pockets, to be closer. I often return to a summer memory from a Greek island — lying safe on the warm stone belly of the Earth.”
On spheres and symbols 2026
“They were spheres from 300,000 years ago. They bear the imprints of human hands, and the suspicion that they were ritual objects. What could they have symbolised? I suspect the moon — its watching has always been bound to the cycle of life on earth. Symbols are still what we need to order chaos and to search for meaning. To me it is a soothing thought that for as long as we have existed, this has not changed.”
On birth — from the “Rozwarcie” catalogue 2023
“It speaks of the bond between earth and the moment of birth. I am inspired by the womb… Rozwarcie — dilation — means opening, the emergence of the new.”
On fragility — dust and ashes 2025
“Dried flowers are so delicate — in a moment they turn to dust. Dust and ashes. Like a vase, which was born of earth. It is a close kinship. When I see it, I feel it, I cry. My tears mix with the dust of dried petals — and I add them to the clay.”
On turning oneself into clay 2023
“Apparently I am answering a deep need — to keep turning myself into clay.” — from a conversation with Anna Maruszeczko (“The Sense of Fragility”, Post Scriptum)
I write on my vessels whatever comes to me in the form of words. And beneath the words there are spaces: boundlessness, immensity, calm, tenderness, love, fire and weeping. Kasia Białek
Inquiries
Regarding acquisitions and studio visits — works from the series are available exclusively by inquiry.
Inquire info@kasiabialek.plPL / EN · press materials on request
The Book of Delights
Kasia calls it her personal Book of Delights — “I keep a diary of everyday delights in ceramics.” Beside the museum quiet of the spheres lives another Kasia — the one of the garden, of the seasons, of the light in the studio window.
“May is a sacred month for me. I was born in May, and every year I live it over again. I am moved by lilac wet with rain, by lilies of the valley. From under the earthen colours, even on my ceramics, a bright green has sprouted.”
“June, for me, is green and pink; colours run through my fingers. I begin the day by smelling the flowers — and that is a good beginning. Yesterday, for the first time, my thirteen-year-old jasmine bloomed.”
“Summer longings I write down in ceramics. Warm air on the skin, dogs basking in the sun, time-travel to my grandmother’s garden through the scent of phlox. My summer, a honeymoon with my daughter, who is now on another continent. Time filled with life.”
Studio photographs: Sławek Bujnowski.