Anna Polanská & Pavla Vachunová: Before the Stone Blossoms

The exhibition Before the Stone Blossoms connects the work of Anna Polanská and Pavla Vachunová, two artists whose paths meet in an intuitive relationship to material, craft, and landscape. A landscape both real and internal, preserved in memories, experiences, and images of childhood.

Anna Polanská's work has long focused on humans situated in a landscape that grows from real memories and dreamlike visions. In her objects, reliefs, and vases, she primarily works with blown, slumped, and cast glass, the final form of which she gradually reveals through grinding and engraving. Her process is intuitive: compositions emerge directly from free sketches in the material. She repeatedly grinds and engraves the objects until lines, surfaces, and shapes merge into an image capable of conveying a feeling, a memory, or a quiet thought.

For Pavla Vachunová, clay has become a fundamental medium. A material that is initially soft and pliable, acquiring its definitive form through the action of fire, it allows her to capture initial thoughts and inner experiences. Working with it symbolically brings together all elements – earth, water, fire, and air. Her work naturally extends from ceramic and porcelain creations to drawing, painting, photography, video, and sculpture.

After years of independent creation, both artists find that their themes return to a similar source: personal experience with the landscape and humans as an inseparable part of it. They are connected by friendship, an intuitive approach to creation, a willingness to experiment, and a firm grounding in craft, patience, and a sculptural understanding of form. Each remains true to her own material world. On Pavla Vachunová's porcelain vases, flowers bloom, their stems, leaves, and blossoms appearing in delicate surface structures. Similarly, engraved lines and organic motifs appear in Anna Polanská's glass.

Glass and porcelain in the newly created joint objects exist side by side as two equal voices. They do not compete with each other or overlap. They complement, permeate, and create a shared space where two artistic paths meet – two experiences with landscape, material, and memory. Before the Stone Blossoms is their quiet dialogue.

Architectural design: Radka Vyplašilová, Max Berdych Visuals: Bohouš Pospíšil (photo), Matúš Buranovský (graphic design) Collaboration: Marcela Straková, Tereza Pinkasová Thanks to: Jakub Berdych Karpelis