Ania Ruszkowski is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores how identity is shaped through migration, memory, and the convergence of cultures. Rooted in her Polish heritage, she examines the intersection between British and migrant experiences through the perspective of a second-generation émigré of Polish descent. Her work reflects on how inherited histories and lived experience intertwine to form a hybrid sense of belonging. Drawing on her parents’ displacement during the Second World War and the home they rebuilt in the UK.

 

Ania Ruszkowski investigates the ways memory and place are continually reconstructed. Working across painting, sculpture, textiles, screen printing, and published writing, she creates layered compositions that merge domestic fragments, cultural symbols, and reimagined iconography. Influenced by the concept of hauntology, introduced by Jacques Derrida, her practice considers how the present is shaped by unresolved traces of the past, memories, histories, and cultural residues that linger, return, or remain unfinished. Through layering, repetition, and reworking, she allows absence and presence to coexist, revealing the instability and fluidity of memory. Earlier marks, materials, and references are intentionally retained, embedding multiple temporalities within each work. Ania Ruszkowski often explores metaphors for culture through traditional objects and symbolic imagery, such as her Barszcz Soup collection and recurring references to the Polish folk dancer, tracing narratives of movement, adaptation, and migration to the UK.

 

Vernacular craft traditions are central to her approach, both materially and conceptually. Drawing on heritage techniques, textiles, and decorative patterns from Polish and British folk traditions, she reconfigures them within a contemporary context. Through a female lens, her work reclaims and repositions craft histories within contemporary art discourse.

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During her master’s degree at Central Saint Martins, Ruszkowski’s practice has become increasingly experimental and process-led, using layering to embed complex cultural references and overlapping histories. Ultimately, her work constructs spaces where memory, craft, and identity intersect, reflecting the evolving nature of cultural hybridity.