Till the beginning of March it will be possible to see in the Amber Museum in Gdansk an exhibition of the works by a famous Polish designer, Andrzej Boss, which were created during the previous 20 years.
 This is another part of the exhibition presented so far among others in YES Gallery in Poznan, during the Gold Silver Time fair and in the Contemporary Theatre in Warsaw. Since the beginning of March the exhibition will be presented in the Museum of Amber. The next parts of this exhibition are Sandomierz in summer, the Museum of Textile Industry in Lodz in October and in further perspective Italy and Great Britain. There were some novelties at the exhibition in the Museum of Amber: a brooch similar to an epaulette and two bowls – one made of soil and amber and the other made of gold-plated court shoes linked together and decorated with colourful synthetic stones. The amber elements could not be absent, of course, all the more that amber plays a very important role in an artistic work of Andrzej Boss and the artist calls it his “great love”. This love resulted in overcoming stereotypes in thinking about amber – the first one was a necklace consisting of amber stones packed in small plastic bags, awarded with the Grand Prix at the International Competition for the Jewellery with Amber Design – Amberif Design Award in 1997. Then the jury’s decision was very stirring and widely commented.  His later works entered for this competition – the artist takes part in it every year, treating the successive subjects as some kind of artistic challenges – carried stronger information: two fingers in a characteristic gesture with an amber in the middle (Love Symbols, 2003) or the Elixirs collection, that is figures of Barbie, Ken, Marylin Monroe and Mother of God buried in amber with golden drink straws (the Organic Product, 2005). Because his works should be understood as a commentary concerning the reality surrounding us, inviting the viewer to discuss significant subjects which bother the author. In his opinion the jewellery has much more important role than only a decorative one: it should constitute a means of conveying crucial, often universal meanings. Andrzej Boss has bent to its function not only a form but also a choice of materials, commenting this fact in the following way: “Clarity or even bluntness of the meaning sometimes requires using non clichéd means. At the age of a lightning communication it is difficult to hammer out the answer for many weeks.”
 The Museum of Amber is planning to buy some of his works, however it has not been decided yet which ones. But for sure they will include a work entitled the Labyrinth, presenting a labyrinth drawn with silver on three lumps of amber, being a whole, entered into the Amberif Design Award competition in 2004. This work is to become a symbol of the World Amber Council.
Photo: Michal Kosior 2008-01-19 | 
