Jan Sawka’s “Homecoming” exhibit in the Daniela Passal Gallery at Mohonk Arts in High Falls – which opens with a splash next Saturday, October 9, then stays open by appointment or online extension through much of the fall – is the kind of art experience for which aficionados wait a lifetime. At its center will be a series of obelisk sculptures by the legendary artist, who has lived and worked near the Gallery for two decades. They utilize “smart glass,” or UMU, whose opacity is regulated by electrical current, allowing panels to shift from opaque to clear and vice versa, thus adding a time element and aura of narrative to the artist’s wildly inventive imagery.

Sawka has been in a class all his own since bursting onto the Polish arts scene in the early 1970s, augmenting his large-scale paintings with a series of innovative posters that suddenly put his nation’s aesthetic into the forefront of cutting-edge art worldwide. Later he expanded into sculpture, installations, set design and architectural plans, and reached out to mass audiences by doing the massive stage sets for the Grateful Dead’s 25th anniversary in the late 1980s and for Traffic’s reunion tour of 1994. In 1999 he produced a series of posters for the 30th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival. He has done jewelry and books, and his work is one of the highlights of the fabulously fun new compendium show “Mr. X,” up at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY-New Paltz this autumn.

“You ask about my approach to art? My stormy life has shaped it for me... At various times I was doing posters, illustrations, editorial drawings, paintings, sculptures: The whole array of printmaking techniques passed through my hands, as did concert and theatrical sets costing from $100 to $3,700,000; then came installations, outdoor sculptures, electronically guided images,” he says of his mind-blowingly large oeuvre, which will be hinted at and focused via his latest works in the High Falls show. “I still do all the things I just outlined above. I have one goal in my life, though: I want to express my feelings, dreams and frustrations – sometimes alone, but often in collaboration with other artists who speak with a different accent: the accent of poetry, drama, acting and music... But we all speak the same language. So I use all the available means to communicate with them, and with all those who are willing to listen.”

Sawka’s new UMU obelisks, which will be shown with some more staid sculptures of the same, sharp-edged form in High Falls, are challenging – and spectacularly engaging. “‘Homecoming’ will be a survey of different times and areas of creative focus,” his daughter Hannah, a film and theater director, has written of this show. “Works at the exhibition will bring home projects that have been created or are under consideration in the far corners of the world. Selected works will be available for sale, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Literary and Arts Foundation’s efforts to provide books to those in need.”

Sawka, who was granted amnesty in the US with his family in the mid-1970s, has shown in more than 60 major museums around the world, including the Pompidou Centre, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Israeli Museum, Jerusalem; and National Museum, Warsaw. I’m taking my kid, as well as my mother, to this one; after all, I’m as interested in all that Sawka draws from our community, as well as honoring the man himself and experiencing his art.

The Homecoming opening reception runs from 4 to 7 p.m. next Saturday, October 9, in the Mohonk Arts Building at 186 Mohonk Road in High Falls. Following the opening, future showings at the gallery will be posted on the artist’s website and on a by-appointment basis. Visit www.jansawka.com for more information.