ALICJA WYSZOGRODZKA. POLISH DESIGN POLISH DESIGNERS

„ALICJA WYSZOGRODZKA. POLISH DESIGN POLISH DESIGNERS”
Muzeum Miasta Gdyni
27.07.2025-22.02.2026
Vernissage: 26.07.2025, start: 18:00

Curators: Dorota Dombrowska-Wyżga, Cezary Lisowski, Weronika Mojska
Exhibition arrangement design: Dorota Terlecka, Natalia Ringwelska / Biuro Kreacja
Exhibition graphic design and visual identity: Anita Wasik

Strategic partner: Invest Komfort
Technology partner: One Wall Design, Europapier
Partners: CottonBee, Dekoma, Design Museum Gent, Instytut Wzornictwa Przemysłowego, Leo Art & Design, Mapalu, IKEA Polska

The creators of the exhibition would like to thank the National Museum in Warsaw and the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw for lending the objects for the exhibition, as well as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Design Museum Gent, the Museum of Art in Lodz and the Starak Family Foundation for providing digital images of the objects for the exhibition.

Special thanks to the heroine of the 10th edition of the series “Polish Design Polish Designers”, Alicja Wyszogrodzka.

Exhibition preview

Alicja Wyszogrodzka – an acclaimed designer of decorative, functional and apparel fabrics, illustrator and painter, as well as an experimenter, researcher and specialist in fabric printing technology – will be the protagonist of the 10th edition of the Gdynia City Museum’s exhibition series “Polish Design Polish Designers” in July 2025.

On July 26, 2025, we will open the first monographic exhibition presenting the designer’s achievements. The exhibition will touch on the themes of the usability of design, its “operation” in everyday life and popular perception, and its role in building relations in the intergenerational community. It will also touch on the theme of domestic and international design, ask about their boundaries, connections and tensions.

In a pioneering, scheme-breaking and cognitively attractive way, the exhibition will present the entire creative process of Alicja Wyszogrodzka, from ideas and inspirational sketches, through designs, to finished products industrially manufactured and often exported abroad, created at the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw and the Central Design Office of the Light Industry in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition space, composed of objects that are a record of Alicja Wyszogrodzka’s creative path, will become a field for building relations between the viewer and the object. In this case, a relationship with an utilitarian fabric (material for a curtain, dress, tablecloth, bedclothes or kitchen towel), from the perspective of adult viewers often based on childhood memories and longing for a bygone time, saturated with emotions and sentimental. The exhibition will also be a field for intergenerational exchange of thoughts, inspirations and associations related to the function of design in everyday life and its role in shaping cultural identity.

Alicja Wyszogrodzka’s distinctive works – full of color, optimistic patterns, abstract designs and a sense of humor, symbolizing the joy of life and the desire to have fun – had a strong influence on shaping the aesthetics of Polish mid-century modern.

Alicja Wyszogrodzka is an outstanding designer, an artist aware of users’ expectations and an artist sensitive to the aesthetic needs of her audience. Following her example, we will provide our audience with the fullest possible multi-sensory discovery and experience of close contact with art. To this end, we have planned an innovative, inclusive and multisensory exhibition arrangement, which will emphasize touch, so much desired by visitors

The Museum of the City of Gdynia has been presenting a series of Polish Design Polish Designers (PPPP) exhibitions since 2014. In this way we want to promote Polish design, inspire, encourage creativity and innovation. We focus our attention on Polish design, wanting to showcase many good, domestic designs. Our goal is to create visually attractive exhibitions, engaging all the senses of the audience, which will allow, on the one hand, to popularize knowledge about Polish design, on the other hand, to show that it has a special value, co-creating cultural heritage for future generations. In accordance with the adopted assumption, active domestic designers, representatives of different generations, are invited to participate in the PPPP series, so that the picture of Polish design is as broad and complete as possible. So far, the Museum of the City of Gdynia has held nine exhibitions in this cycle: “Zbigniew Horbowy” (2014), „Rygalik. The essence of things“ (2015), ”Marek Cecuła“ (2016), ”Oskar Zięta“ (2017), ”Karol Śliwka“ (2018), ”Barbara Hoff“ (2019), ”Janusz Kaniewski“ (2020), ”Eryka and Jan Drost“ (2021), ”Jakub Szczęsny” (2023).

In 2025 we will show a figure whose rich work and name we want to perpetuate in the consciousness of the widest possible audience. And our ambition is for Alicja Wyszogrodzka to become known not only to the recipients of design.

Weronika Mojska
Curator

The exhibition „Alicja Wyszogrodzka. Polish Design Polish Designers” was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture – a state purpose fund.