Petals of Defiance

12–29 September 2026
Galleri Lerverk, Kronhusbodarna, Gothenburg

Petals of Defiance grew out of fragments of memories my mother shared with me about growing up in post-war Poland. Memories of a piano, music, Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino, candlelight and small stories about everyday life, but also stories about courage, integrity and what it takes to hold on to your humanity when the world around you is changing.

Over time, these fragments have developed into a much larger body of work exploring memory, inheritance, silence and resistance, and what happens to a story when it is passed from one generation to another.

The exhibition brings together jewellery, objects, laser engravings, cyanotypes and textile works. Images and forms return in different materials and techniques, like imprints and shadows of something that once existed.

The poppy runs through the exhibition as a recurring fragment of memory. Its origins lie in my mother's stories and in Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino – The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino – but in my work it has also become a symbol of courage, strength and resistance, and a quiet reminder that we are all part of something larger and that the choices we make matter.

Among the central works in the exhibition is Czerwone Maki, a necklace created from parts of an old piano and connected to my mother's memory of playing the forbidden song Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino as a child in post-war Poland.

Another work, I Count the Days Until We Meet Again, came into existence only twelve days before the opening. It consists of 30,055 small glass beads, one for every day from 18 May 1944, when the Polish flag was raised over the ruins of the monastery at Monte Cassino, until 31 August 2026, the day the idea for the work came to me. The finished necklace will be approximately 65 metres long and will run through the exhibition.

Petals of Defiance is my first solo exhibition and my most personal and extensive artistic project to date.

I hope you will come and see it.

Opening reception
12 September, 12.00–16.00

Artist talks & guided tours

19 September – The Story Behind Petals of Defiance (preliminary)

26 September – Memory as Material + finissage

Galleri Lerverk
Kronhusbodarna, Gothenburg
12–29 September 2026