…and Beauty Remains / Artistic Jewellery by Danka Czapnik

Until 31 December 2026 the Goldsmith Museum on the Market Square in Kazimierz Dolny shows the work of Danka Czapnik. A painter by training, she built large, theatrical jewellery out of silver, raw amber and things other people had thrown away. The show costs nothing beyond the branch’s ordinary ticket. The museum’s words below are our translation; it publishes no English version of the page.

Vistula Museum on the exhibition:

She created large, expressive, eye-catching spatial jewellery compositions whose texture, colour and surprising combinations of materials often provoke delight, sometimes astonishment and at times disapproval. Yet they never leave the viewer indifferent, bearing witness to the clarity, uncompromising nature and defiance of the artist’s creative thought. Although she left us a few years ago, her love of the world, her talent and her sensitivity to beauty remain in her work.

What to expect

This is a posthumous survey of the artist’s main collections, hung in a branch whose permanent display already covers both historic silverware and contemporary art jewellery. It opened on 8 August 2026 at 12:00, and the BNP Paribas Dwa Brzegi film and art festival listed the opening among its side events.

The museum does not say how many pieces are on show. According to Amber Portal, a Polish trade site on amber and jewellery, they come from the private collection of Professor Elżbieta Kłosińska, an archaeologist at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Her collection now numbers 128 pieces, but no source says how many made it into the display. Work from the same collection was shown in Lublin in 2024, in an exhibition called “Panta rhei” at the university botanical garden’s Kościuszko Manor.

On the exhibition page the museum captions one image as a pendant from the “Excavations” (“Wykopaliska”) series. A 2024 university announcement explains that in “Excavations” the artist set small archaeological finds from Pomerania, such as fragments of dolls and bits of metal, into silver. In an interview with Amber Portal, the collector says it was exactly this strand that drew her in as an archaeologist.

This is not jewellery for everyday wear. Doll heads, watch dials and shards of porcelain turn a pendant into a small sculpture on the edge of the grotesque. If you prefer a classic stone in a classic setting, you will find it in the same branch’s permanent collection.

Context

Danka Czapnik was born in Sopot in 1954 and died in Gdynia on 15 January 2022. She studied painting at the art college in Gdańsk under Kazimierz Ostrowski and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Stefan Gierowski. After graduating in 1983 she worked mainly as a jewellery designer. From 2010 her pieces appeared at the fashion galas of Amberif, the international amber fair in Gdańsk, some in shows made with the designers Jola Słoma and Mirek Trymbulak.

Tickets and time

There is no separate ticket. The show is included in the Goldsmith Museum ticket: 18 PLN standard, 13 PLN reduced, 50 PLN family; organised groups of 15 or more get 15 percent off. The festival programme gave 15 PLN, but the museum’s price list is what applies.

The free-admission day covers this show. The museum picks a different free day every month and announces it on its website by the last day of the month before. The rule covers the permanent displays and the temporary exhibitions in the branches; on that day groups are admitted only with a booking.

Opening hours: in the summer season (1 April - 30 September) daily 10:00-17:00; in the winter season (1 October - 31 March) daily except Tuesday, 9:00-16:00 (9 AM to 4 PM). Ticket sales stop 30 minutes before closing. During the run the museum is closed on 1 and 11 November and on 24 and 25 December.

Half an hour is enough for the show itself; allow an hour if you add the permanent goldsmithery collection. The branch is in the museum’s main building at Rynek 19, the only one of its buildings with a lift. Kazimierz Dolny is about 50 km west of Lublin, and the museum names buses from Lublin and Puławy as the way to get there.

Worth it if you care about art jewellery, amber or design, and a good counterweight if you came to Kazimierz for its painters rather than its goldsmiths. If jewellery that flirts with kitsch and the macabre puts you off, skip it; the historic silver in the permanent display stands on its own.

English on site: the museum says nothing about English labels, an audio guide or English-language tours for this exhibition. Expect Polish captions; the objects need no translation, the artist’s story does, and this page covers it.

What the press says

Amber Portal (15 August 2026, Anna Sado): highlights the found objects in Czapnik’s large forms, poised between humour and the grotesque, and stresses that the pieces on show belong to one collector - article, in Polish .

Amber Portal (20 August 2026, Anna Sado), interview with Professor Elżbieta Kłosińska: the collector recalls buying Czapnik’s work from around 2011 and says she values most the pieces made with doll fragments and excavated finds - interview, in Polish .

See also

• Vistula Museum in Kazimierz Dolny profile - the Goldsmith Museum’s permanent collection, including about 750 contemporary pieces, mostly art jewellery, plus hours and prices for every branch.
• Artist of Life. Wiesław Ochman - another of the museum’s shows about an artist who changed disciplines: paintings by a Metropolitan Opera tenor at the Kuncewicz House, until 11 November 2026.
• Love the Vistula - paintings and an installation about the river at the Natural History Museum, easy to fit into the same day.
• Beauty Captured in Amber - Lublin-region amber at Kozłówka, until 30 November 2026, for anyone Czapnik’s work leaves wanting more of the material.

Museum profile: Vistula Museum in Kazimierz Dolny .