MONIKA URBANIAK
BIO
Monika Urbaniak is a metalsmith, studio jeweler, and mixed-media artist who graduated from NSCAD University in 2008. Over the years, she has worked with fiber, paper, and metal, but a fascination with sculptural experimentation led her to focus on jewelry.
She is especially passionate about art jewelry that creates a dialogue between conceptual and material elements. This pursuit fuels her one-of-a-kind pieces, which aim to tell a story, evoke curiosity, and challenge conventional expectations of what jewelry can represent. Her current material choices often question traditional notions of value in jewelry.
Monika is a member of the BC and Alberta Craft Councils, SNAG, and Precious Collective. She has participated in numerous exhibitions across Canada and the United States and is the proud winner of the 2025 La Pai Annual National Jewellery Student Competition.
Based on Vancouver Island, BC, Monika is currently pursuing her MFA in Craft Media at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, AB, with an anticipated graduation in May 2026.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Monika Urbaniak’s work moves through the terrain of memory, its fragility, echoes, and quiet persistence. She is drawn to the spaces between presence and absence, where remembering becomes an act of touch. Themes of loss, time, and impermanence guide her toward materials that speak softly yet hold strength. Precious metals meet fiber, eggshells, pebbles, and found objects, forming delicate harmonies of tension and balance. Each piece carries a trace of lived experience, something fleeting yet felt. Inspiration often arises in still moments: walking, observing, collecting fragments of the everyday where memory flickers back to life.
Monika Urbaniak is a metalsmith, studio jeweler, and mixed-media artist who graduated from NSCAD University in 2008. Over the years, she has worked with fiber, paper, and metal, but a fascination with sculptural experimentation led her to focus on jewelry.
She is especially passionate about art jewelry that creates a dialogue between conceptual and material elements. This pursuit fuels her one-of-a-kind pieces, which aim to tell a story, evoke curiosity, and challenge conventional expectations of what jewelry can represent. Her current material choices often question traditional notions of value in jewelry.
Monika is a member of the BC and Alberta Craft Councils, SNAG, and Precious Collective. She has participated in numerous exhibitions across Canada and the United States and is the proud winner of the 2025 La Pai Annual National Jewellery Student Competition.
Based on Vancouver Island, BC, Monika is currently pursuing her MFA in Craft Media at Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary, AB, with an anticipated graduation in May 2026.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Monika Urbaniak’s work moves through the terrain of memory, its fragility, echoes, and quiet persistence. She is drawn to the spaces between presence and absence, where remembering becomes an act of touch. Themes of loss, time, and impermanence guide her toward materials that speak softly yet hold strength. Precious metals meet fiber, eggshells, pebbles, and found objects, forming delicate harmonies of tension and balance. Each piece carries a trace of lived experience, something fleeting yet felt. Inspiration often arises in still moments: walking, observing, collecting fragments of the everyday where memory flickers back to life.