Kalina Bańka-Kulka’s exhibition “Naczynia połączone” (Connected Vessels) is an intimate journey through the world of family memories, whose main characters are four women: the artist, her mother, grandmother and daughter. It is a story about family relationships, daily rituals and how the past shapes our present.
In the artist’s hands, glass becomes not just a material, but a fully-fledged medium that expresses both delicacy and permanence. It symbolises the transience of life, but at the same time reminds us of the traces that – despite the passage of time – remain in our memory.
The title of the exhibition, which refers to one of the artist’s series of works, is a metaphor for the process of passing on experiences, values and patterns of behaviour through the generations. As a child, a popular game was to create ‘sights’ – little treasures that you buried in the ground. They usually consisted of small objects, plants or other things that were considered beautiful or valuable. The whole thing was covered with a piece of glass and then buried so that only a selected person who knew where it was hidden could see it. In Kalina Bańka-Kulka’s works, glass plays a similar role – it becomes a carrier of memories, emotions and experiences which, although hidden, are immortalised in artistic forms. The artist’s sculptures, although they do not contain physical objects, are a kind of such ‘sights’ full of memories of past moments. Encapsulated in these complex ‘vessels’ are personal stories, which Kalina Bańka-Kulka courageously shares with the audience, encouraging reflection.
The works were inspired by family relationships, motherhood and childhood memories. The artist, raised in Dąbrowa Górnicza, near the “Ząbkowice” Glassworks, has had contact with glass from an early age. However, it was not until her studies that, inspired by the technique of stained glass, she discovered the full potential of this material.
In her works, glass becomes the medium through which she expresses emotions, after-images of the past and intimate stories related to her family, especially the figure of her beloved grandmother. In the series “Wszystko się przyda” (Everything comes in handy) Kalina tackles the subject of compulsive collecting of objects, a morbid hoarding disorder, which her grandmother Antonina suffered from. An excerpt from the film presented in the exhibition provides an opportunity to reflect on how our decisions – both conscious and subconscious – affect our lives and how deeply connected we are to what we collect: things, memories and emotions. Thanks to the film featuring the artist’s grandmother, viewers have the opportunity to see this important figure in her everyday life, which adds an even more personal dimension to the exhibition.
In the series “Powidoki” (After-images), the artist pays tribute to her memories of a carefree childhood spent with her beloved grandmother, who was an oasis of security for her. Inspired by traditional milk cans and decorated with graphics depicting herbs, plants and symbols of nature, the sculptures are a melancholic journey back in time, reminding us of holiday beauties. “After-images” is also an expression of a longing for a simple, peaceful life in which every moment was full of magic.
“Oczyszczanie” (Cleansing) alludes to the shared moments spent with her grandmother in nature, to the sense of security she provided, and to traditional cleansing rituals that had a deep symbolic dimension. In this work, the artist refers to intimate gestures – such as washing her face in water, in a spring – which for her represent an act of spiritual purification.
The entire exhibition is complemented by the series “Connected Vessels” which was created after the birth of the artist’s daughter and became a space for reflection on the inheritance and reproduction of family patterns – both these positive and these more difficult. Bańka-Kulka explores the mechanisms of the passing of values and unconscious behavioural patterns between generations, while finding in the process a profound reflection on motherhood, which became a turning point in her artistic and private life.
The artist juxtaposes old, forgotten objects and everyday rituals with modern glass techniques such as fusing, slumping or classic stained glass. As a result, she introduces a new dynamic to her works, creating surprising and tense compositions that enrich each series.
The exhibition of works is perfectly integrated into the space in which it takes place. The glass sculptures presented on metal frames form a coherent whole, and their form, referring to the artist’s daughter’s colourful drawings, adds lightness and freshness, creating a space full of emotion.
“Connected vessels” is an exhibition that not only invites us to reflect on how our identities and relationships are shaped by the world around us, but also prompts us to think more deeply about how we pass on values, memories and experiences from generation to generation.
Karolina Rybka

Kalina Bańka-Kulka was born in 1989 in Dąbrowa Górnicza. Graduate of the Department of Ceramics and Glass at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where since 2013 she has been one of the teachers at the diploma studio in the Department of Glass. She obtained her doctorate in 2020. She is currently Head of the Department of Glass. She has had twelve solo exhibitions and participated in several hundred glass exhibitions at home and abroad (including: USA, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, Estonia, Netherlands, Lithuania, Czech Republic). She has won more than a dozen competitions both nationally and internationally in the field of glass and design. In 2016, a glass object by her was short-listed for the NEW GLASS REVIEW 38 – 100 selected glass works of 2016, by the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. In recent years, she has taught glass classes at prestigious centres such as: Urban Glass in New York, the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood in the USA or the Bild-Werk Fraueneau in Germany. Her works can be found in collections: Karkonosze Museum in Jelenia Góra, the National Museum in Kraków, the Glass Museum Alter Hof Herding in Germany and several private collections at home and abroad.
She creates unique objects from glass, which she usually presents as site-specific installations, showing traditional glass-making techniques in a non-standard context. Her projects touch upon important and topical issues, addressing social and economic phenomena such as over-consumerism, Internet addiction, loneliness or compulsive collecting. She is currently working on personal and sentimental projects linked to motherhood and family relationships. The use of glass in most of her projects is also symbolic.
When working with glass, she uses a variety of fabrication techniques, such as classic hand-painted stained glass, fusing and slumping, which he often combines with screen printing. She also makes unique objects in single or short series in moulding and hot-blown glass techniques, collaborating with other artists and glass-makers in their creation.

Start 23.05.2025, 18:00
3 Gdańska St.
End 19.07.2025