Saint Apollonia

Pola Dwurnik’s official name is Apolonia, which is how she appears in documents. According to Catholic tradition, the patron saint of all Apolonias is an early Christian martyr Saint Apollonia of Alexandria, During a persecution of Christians around AD 249, she was tortured and had her teeth broken and pulled out. In painting and visual arts, Saint Apollonia is most commonly depicted as a young woman holding a pair of pincers or tongs with an extracted tooth, symbolizing her martyrdom.

Pola Dwurnik refers to this tradition, but also creates her own iconography. What fascinates her is the mad devotion to faith in the face of the executioners’ extreme cruelty. Madness and intense emotions such as euphoria mixed with fear fill her works. Important elements include fire serving as a reference to Saint Apollonia’s death in the flames and the tooth, obsessively multiplied and filling the space of the artworks.

The series also consists of various works on paper.
Apollonia’s Flower, 2025, oil on canvas, 35 × 48 cm
Saint Apollonia’s Flower, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 40 × 38 cm
Saint Apollonia’s Flower, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 40 × 38 cm
Saint Apollonia’s Flower, 2021, oil on canvas, 55 × 46 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2020, oil on canvas, 30 × 30 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2020, oil on canvas, 30 × 30 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2020, oil on canvas, 30 × 30 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 cm
Saint Apollonia, 2019, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 cm