To mark the UK/Poland Season 2025, CPP Hounslow presents a new exhibition by Karolina Dworska. Presenting previous works alongside a newly commissioned triptych, the exhibition explores Karolina’s cross-cultural experience as a first generation immigrant through the lens of Polish folklore, creating her own personal mythology.
Karolina’s textile practice uses rug-making as the medium for exploring in-between spaces: for example, the grey area between dream and reality, nostalgia and memory. Often using her own dreams as the basis for her works, the resulting dreamscapes feature uncanny scenes and surreal figures. Inspired by references ranging from science fiction and body horror and to the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, her works can be both comical and challenging; creating scenes in which things are not quite right, undefined and uncomfortable.
For this exhibition, Karolina continues this exploration to explore another experience of inbetweenness. Born in Rzeszów, Poland, and spending her early childhood in Bieszczady, her family emigrated to the UK in 2004. As a first generation immigrant, Karolina’s experience as a Ponglish kid – both Polish and English – has been the starting point for these new works: “For this commission, I wanted to take key points from growing up as a young person in this country while being firmly rooted across two cultures, and reimagine them as monumental, or potentially fantastical images.”
The exhibition presents a new textile triptych, using Karolina’s fantastical approach to explore her own mixed identity and imagine new, personal mythologies. The exhibition also presents a survey of previous works, key themes from which all are present in the new commission.
Karolina Dworska (b. 1997, Rzeszów, Poland) completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2020 and was awarded with a year-long Junior Fellowship after graduating. Dworska was one of the artists selected for the 2021 Bloomberg New Contemporaries, with her work shown at South London Gallery and Firstsite, Colchester. Her work has been exhibited across the UK and internationally and has featured in numerous international publications.
This project is part of CPP Hounslow’s programming marking the UK/Poland Season 2025, an international collaboration led by the British Council that celebrates a milestone year in the cultural relationship between Poland and the UK.
View previous works by Karolina Dworska:
View photos of the current exhibition:
CPP Hounslow 