Aleksandra Wejchert

Aleksandra Wejchert (1921, Kraków - 1995, Dún Laoghaire in Ireland) was a Polish-Irish sculptor, painter and graphic artist. She completed architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology (1949), and then the Faculty of Graphic Art of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts (1952-56, under Leon Michalski). In 1965 she emigrated to Ireland, where she developed her mature work.

Wejchert practised abstract art - both geometric and based on organic motifs. She often made reliefs with an irregular, undulating surface (of wood, concrete, steel), in which texture had an importance equal to colour, and the most characteristic feature was a strong rhythm - repetitions of forms arranging themselves like visual music. Her works are situated at the meeting point of order and the illusion of movement, having points in common with op-art, although they were neither strictly kinetic nor constructivist.

In time the artist created minimalist sculptures of Plexiglas, polymers, steel and in neon colours, referring in their shape to nature and the elements (such as „Flame” of transparent polymer), as well as numerous monumental realisations for Irish institutions (including the AIB bank headquarters in Dublin, the University of Limerick, University College Cork). She exhibited solo in Rome, Paris and Dublin, showed her works annually at the prestigious Royal Hibernian Academy, and her works are in the collections of museums in Paris, Rome and Dublin and in private collections in Ireland, Italy, France and the USA.