Gaby Mlynarczyk: Selected works, 2023-2024
Salvage series
Each work is an assemblage of purpose made and salvaged ceramic components collected in an attempt to stop them from adding to landfills. With a nod to Kintsugi that celebrates cracks in broken pieces, the salvaged pieces are finished with 24K gold luster giving them new life.
1) Bending Hectic: stoneware, porcelain, parian clays and salvaged components, sand, lava rock, epoxy.
2) Samna: porcelain and parian clays, salvaged components, low fire ceramic mortar, lava rock, perlite, sand, 24K gold luster, squid ink.
3) In Bloom: porcelain clay and salvaged components, 24k gold luster, squid ink
Weird Fishes Series
Influenced by the great pacific garbage patch and what happens when you mix ocean trash with marine life. These speculative designs are also a nod to the forms found in Rococo sculpture with their shell and earlike inspiration.
1) Heima: Heima is the old Norse word for home and is a look at glass sponges on the ocean floor that house small marine life, giving them protection from the ever-growing ocean currents. This piece is finished with marine based bioplastic in place of glaze to limit my use of glaze chemicals and their run off into the waste water system. Porcelain and parian clays and slips, marine based bioplastic, sand, charcoal, epoxy.
2) Dawn Chorus: made using another ceramist’s thrown away vessel with purpose made porcelain and parian components.
3) Catch of the Day: Porcelain paper clay, parian, marine based bioplastic, sand, charcoal
4) Volva: stoneware, porcelain and parian clays, marine based bioplastic, sand
5) Frutti di Mare 1, 2 and 3: porcelain and parian clays, Egyptian paste, marine based bioplastic, sand, epoxy.
