2026 04 23 – 06 14 (Art Gallery, Respublikos str. 3)
Opening April 23, 5 p.m.
The history of the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk dates back to the very beginnings of the institution. As early as 1945, when the State Institute of Fine Arts in Sopot (later the Academy of Fine Arts) was established, sculpture was one of the three most significant fields of study. In 1947, the Faculty of Sculpture was founded, and it remains one of the pillars of the Academy to this day; since 2011, it has been expanded to include Intermedia and, subsequently, Photography.
The increasingly open approach to teaching contemporary sculpture was shaped by outstanding figures of the modern art world who continue to inspire us today, such as Marian Wnuk, Stanisław Horno-Popławski, Anna Pietrowiec, Hanna Żuławska, Adam Smolana, Alfred Wiśniewski, Franciszek Duszeńko, Edward Sitek, Zdzisław Pidek, Henryk Lula, Janina Stefanowicz-Schmidt, Stanisław Radwański, and Sławoj Ostrowski. Their poetic figurations, archetypal, symbolic, and occasionally even proto-ecological compositions, serve as an important point of reference in our creative and educational endeavours, thereby influencing the profile of the department.
In 1996, the Department of Sculpture was relocated to the historic Small Armoury on Wałowy Square in Gdańsk, a location providing exceptionally favourable spaces for the cultivation of sculpture.
The exhibition Form and Thought. Sculptors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, emphasises the creative process by showcasing the diversity of accomplishments achieved by a group of artists and current lecturers on the international stage. The exhibition reveals the multitude of possibilities for the expression of artistic concepts, with individual compositions serving as a means of reflection and carriers of meaning. The exhibition, which is held at the Civic Art Gallery in Panevėžys, Lithuania, presents 27 diverse artistic approaches and unique perspectives on contemporary sculpture.
Individual artistic strategies cover a broad spectrum, ranging from seemingly ‘classical’ monumental and figurative sculpture, through bold experiments with materials and structure, to installations, post-conceptual practices, and art in public spaces. A shared thread remains the reflection on the relationship between form, matter, and concept, which is the hallmark of the community intuitively referred to as the Gdańsk school of sculpture. Both the evolution and the continuity of the sculptural tradition developed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk are simultaneously revealed by the juxtaposition of different generations and artistic sensibilities.
What unites this group of artists is not a shared style, but a shared attitude: the conviction that sculpture is an open, dynamic, and critical field. The medium is not a constraint but rather a starting point, a structure that can be challenged, expanded, and redefined. In this regard, Gdańsk sculpture is not so much a formal category as a way of thinking: a practice that explores its own boundaries and constantly transcends them, all the while remaining conscious of its material and spatial nature.
Artists: Sylwia Aniszewska, Mariusz Białecki, Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska, Dymitr Buławka-Fankidejski, Mariusz Burdek, Marek Elsner, Michał Furmaniak, Paweł Gostomski, Sylwia Jakubowska-Szycik, Katarzyna Józefowicz, Katarzyna Jóźwiak-Moskal, Robert Kaja, Małgorzata Kręcka-Rozenkranz, Adriana Majdzińska, Ludmiła Ostrogórska, Marcin Plichta, Janina Rudnicka, Magdalena Schmidt-Góra, Wojciech Sęczawa, Dariusz Sitek, Daniel Sobański, Tomasz Sobisz, Tomasz Skórka, Paulina Stokowska, Jan Szczypka, Marek Targoński, and Małgorzata Wiśniewska
Alicja Buławka-Fankidejska, Dymitr Buławka-Fankidejski, Aurelija Seilienė
Exhibition curators
Panevėžys, 2026
