This is an exhibition of four women artists, who met in Gorlice and Szymbark twenty three years ago on an international artist plener at Dwor Karwacjanow, hosted by the then director Zdzislaw Tohl , and were first brought  by artist professor Włodzimierz Kunz to the then abandoned kasztel for artistic inspiration. 

Since that time, while the four artists have continued to work alone, they also started to work collaboratively, in England, in France and in Poland. Sometimes as two ,sometimes as three  and now as four they have returned to the place where their relationships started,  with Valizka – bringing with them suitcases of  works in rolls, folded on paper and  fabric, work  which embodies the creative journey they have taken.

Valizka is a touring show to England and to France, and that journey will start here in Poland where it began. Each space is different, a parcel office in Scarborough, an old shop in London, an outbuilding in France, so the work continues to evolve, but the unpacking of the suitcases begins here in Szymbark where it started.

Louise Severyn Kosinska - born in London .Studied at Central School of Art and Design, London. Post-graduate diploma.Portsmouth Polytechnic, B.A.(Hons) Fine Art. A member of Bigos collective, Artists of Polish Origin, whose work is held in the Tate Gallery archives in London.

 A practicing artist for 40 years, Louise works and exhibits in the UK and internationally with multimedia artwork in both gallery and non-gallery spaces. She has exhibited in a variety of spaces, including galleries, museums, theatres, churches, the ruins of a  chapel, mausoleums, the woods, the bedding department  of a department store, an empty shop and a deserted castle These works have a distinct narrative ,storytelling that evokes memories and a sense of place.

 My work is concerned with points of entry and departure. Colour and the lack of it symbolise two separate worlds, echoing my dual heritage. I am drawn to opposites and images with two halves, anchoring these images to stories, which mystify mundane objects, investing them with ambiguous meaning and mythology and charge the senses.

Ruth Miemczyk - born in 1949 in England, of Anglo/Polish parentage, Ruth has been a practicing artist and teacher for almost 50 years. As well as achieving over twenty individual exhibitions, she has taken part in group exhibitions, artist residencies and art festivals in the UK, Poland, France and Italy.

Absence, separation and loss are themes that reverberate through Miemczyk’s work, often referencing growing up with two cultures, one English, one Polish. Her work explores the materiality of surface, how it holds and reveals stories of human interaction alongside the very nature of our world.

Sophie Epton-Mock lives and works in France where she participates in the collective artistic project ‘Maison Louis Jardin ‘(alternative venue for contemporary art). Born in London , she  studied at Harrow Art School and continued her studies to obtain her diploma at the ‘Beaux-Arts ‘ in Reims  France in 1981. Since then, she has exhibited regularly in France, Italy  England and Poland where she took part in numerous pleners and workshops. She has been represented by the Le Cardo gallery and then 3W gallery since 2005. She is part of the Trzy collective.

Her work in painting and printmaking embodies the tensions between figuration and abstraction, process and image. Starting mainly from figures that she cuts out, deforms, sublimates, she questions our relationship to the body as well as its representation in the history of art. Since 2019, Sophie Epton-Mock has been working on a series of print-collages. She uses cut-out paper shapes that move randomly in the space of the sheet. The artist superimposes these shapes and silhouettes and thus gives an impression of movement.

Monika Wheeler graduated with a BA (HONS) in Fine Art from the University of Hertfordshire, received a Diploma from John Cass Art School in London, and studied at Escuela de Bellas Artes in Panama.

 Throughout her career, she has worked as a versatile artist, engaging in painting, photography, and art-specific installations both in England and abroad. Notably, Monika served as a Secretary for The Polish Artist Association and curated shows for Posk Gallery in Hammersmith and Bletchley Park, Bucks. Additionally, she has contributed articles to the art columns of Dziennik Polski and Tydzien Polski.

 Monika actively participated in the "East meets West" artist symposium in Gorlice, Poland. Following this, she organized a show of site-specific installations with Louise Severyn-Kosinska and Dutch filmmaker Anneke Bosma in the semi-restored Szymbark Castle.

 Her artwork has been showcased in various exhibitions worldwide, including Galeria in Panamá-Colon, Dom Polonia in Barcelona, Spain, Artismixed Gallery and Obsidian Gallery in Suffolk, Deptford X in London, Het Klein Theatre in Eindhoven, Holland, Millfield Theatre in London, MoDa in London, La Defense in Paris, France, and the Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Art Library in New York, as well as in touring exhibitions across the USA and Australia, among others.