About the Artists: Jarosław Kolec "With a Heart for a Stone"

Venue: Galeria Ring (12 Main Square)

Dates: 22.04. – 08.06.2025

Opening: 10.05.2025

Admission free

Jarosław Kolec invites us into the world of natural stones, which have remained an inexhaustible source of fascination for the artist for over four decades. The exhibition presents jewellery made from rock crystal, banded and chocolate flint, as well as amber – natural gemstones particularly close to the creator’s heart.

The display includes sculptural experiments with banded flint from 2002–2011, works from the series I’ll Give You a Crystal Pebble, the mirrored object series Op-art, and his latest pieces, which will be presented to the public for the first time during this year’s edition of the Legnica Jewellery Festival SILVER.

In the artist’s creative process, the natural form of the stone plays the leading role. The colour, shape, pattern, optical properties, and degree of transparency of each specimen determine the final form of the jewellery object. Jarosław Kolec recognises and reveals the natural beauty of stones with particular sensitivity and deep respect for the forms shaped by millions of years of geological processes.

Jarosław Kolec is a graduate of the Władysław Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, a board member of the Polish Gemmological Society, and a certified diamond appraiser. He completed his diploma in the Jewellery Studio led by Professor Andrzej Szadkowski. Since 1988, he has been professionally associated with his alma mater, where he currently runs the Studio of Technology and Materials Science at the Institute of Jewellery on the Faculty of Design Arts. In 2009, he has earned a PhD in Fine Arts. He has also lectured and taught at the Department of Pedagogical Methodology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and at the Alternative Education Seminar led by Professor Janusz Gnitecki, PhD.

He is the founder and member of the Creative Group G7, active since 2006.

Jarosław Kolec has participated in numerous exhibitions in Austria, Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, China, Denmark, Spain, Israel, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Germany, Poland, Russia, the USA, Hungary, and the United Kingdom. He is a laureate of awards and distinctions in 12 competitions. Notably, he received the Second Prize ELEKTRONOS at the 6th International Amber Jewellery Design Competition in Gdańsk (2002), First Prize at the National Author’s Jewellery Competition Banded Flint – The Stone of Optimism in Sandomierz (2011), as well as the Legnica Gallery Award and an STFZ distinction at the 20th National Artistic Jewellery Competition MODERATION (2024).

His works are held in the collections of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, the Museum of Copper in Legnica, the Regional Museum in Sandomierz, YES Gallery in Poznań, the Amber Museum in Gdańsk, the “Alatyr” Amber Museum in Kaliningrad, and the Gallery of Art in Legnica.

The exhibition is a realisation of the Legnica Gallery Award from the 20th National Artistic Jewellery Competition MODERATION, organised in 2024 by the Polish Association of Goldsmithing Artists (STFZ).

Rings, chocolate flint

Ring, rock crystal

Rings, rock crystal