Nº 9 SCULPTURE BY ALICJA PODGÓRSKA BIRKNER

Alicja Podgórska Birkner

Born Chelmsko Slaskie, Poland, 1960

Polish sculptor based in Munich, Birkner creates stoneware and ceramic sculptures and functional objects she calls “sculptures with a function”. Working intuitively with elemental shapes, at times composed of interlocking step forms or multiple interdependent parts, she builds each piece toward a vibrant calm, a sensibility intended to draw the viewer into a relaxed, near-meditative state. Her sculptures hold a quiet duality: grounded yet weightless, disciplined in form yet unguarded in feeling. Birkner’s practice is one of simplification. Each curve and surface is pared back until what remains feels essential rather than decorative, radiating the peace and harmony she seeks to instill in the spaces her work inhabits

For Birkner, artistic evolution is inseparable from personal discipline. She holds devotion, trust, persistence, and thankfulness as the foundations of creative maturity, a maturity independent of external validation. Birkner earned a degree in pedagogy from the University of Wrocław before pursuing further study in graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, where she first encountered clay, discovering in its three-dimensionality an inexhaustible source of creative freedom, a medium that carried her beyond the flat page into space, volume, and touch

Birkner now lives and works in Munich, Germany. Her work appears in public and private collections worldwide

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