Materials hold memory. A wedding ring passed down through the generations, your grandfather’s timeworn toolbox, a well-loved pair of jeans from high school: each tells a quiet story of those who touched them. For sculptor and public artist Kasia Ozga, these personal artifacts are more than nostalgia; they converse with one another, calling for reflection and highlighting society's collective imagination.
Ozga’s work explores social histories embedded in everyday materials, inviting viewers to engage with their own sense of place and identity. “Materials have history,” she says, “telling the story of the people they have encountered.” Her practice reimagines found and salvaged items, transforming them into sculptural works that speak to labor, memory, and social connection.
Born in Poland, Ozga immigrated to the American Midwest with her family as a young child. This international perspective continues to inform her approach to artmaking. Having spent much of her professional career in Europe, she returned to the United States in 2022 and accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of North Carolina Greensboro in 2023.
Now firmly rooted in North Carolina, Ozga recently prepared for her first solo exhibition in the state, Human Resources, which debuted at the Jeanne Hastings Art Gallery at Sandhills Community College in January 2025.
The exhibition featured bronze, aluminum, and textile sculptures cast and sewn from used blue-collar workwear, breathing new life into garments that once bore the weight of physical labor.
“I was excited to experiment with the intersection of textile soft sculpture, metal casting of textiles and fasteners, and welded armatures,” says Ozga. “This has been a great opportunity for me to begin showing more consistently in North Carolina and the South as a whole.”
Kasia Ozga, Artist Support Grantee
The Artist Support Grant helped fund the production and presentation of Human Resources, including materials, equipment, and crating, as well as transportation from a previous solo show at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA. It also supported documentation of the exhibition through photography and video, which are essential tools for sharing her work with broader audiences and cultivating future opportunities.
Since arriving in Greensboro, Ozga is already making an impact on the region’s arts community. She’s participated in numerous group exhibitions both regionally and internationally, curated a group show with her international artist collective ReChantier at Goodyear Arts in Charlotte, working with her UNCG students and the Creative Aging Network-NC to build an interactive sculpture park, and exhibited in Coined in the South at the Mint Museum in Charlotte.
To learn more about Kasia and her work, you can visit her website or follow her social media platforms at @KasiaOzgaArt.
