In 2010, Niemywska teamed up with fellow designer Dawid Grynasz to create Modulor, a furniture set comprising four modules: a seat, backrest, armrest and shelf. The elements can be freely combined to create a number of furniture items, as required: a sofa, daybed, bed, pouffe or armchair. The innovative connection system allows users to rearrange the modules quickly and easily. This dynamic and highly functional item of furniture, with its unlimited combinations, adapts itself perfectly to our lifestyle, physical space and needs.
In the same year, Niemywska created another flexible and open-ended furniture system comprising modules. However, Bibliotekarka is an entirely different design solution, aimed particularly at those who like to interact with the design process. This piece gives users the freedom to create using two elements — a metal truss and a wooden shelf. Together they form the base for constructing wall units for small and large spaces alike. The simplicity of the elements means that they can be used in the home, or as a display system in a shop or gallery.
Niemywska’s readiness to involve users in the actual process of design is ever-present in her work. She happily accepts jobs in the public sphere and designs for the Forms and Shapes Foundation, e.g. her work on the Playground initiative — EUgenius, Mushroom-picking and Fishing. Arising from the latter of these projects, Niemywska’s Siecisko design, inspired by fishing nets, is a mobile item of furniture which is both easy to assemble and easy to clean: it can be used in parks, in the family garden or on a patio.
Marta Niemywska frequently works alongside architect Dawid Grynasz on her activities in the public sphere, furniture designs, interior designs (e.g. Warsaw’s MUJI store) and exhibitions (including the Good Design exhibitions from 2011-2013 at IWP and Polish Red Dots at the Patents Office in Warsaw, 2013). Together they take on a variety of design challenges which often have an interdisciplinary character. After all, next to interaction, this interdisciplinary nature is one of the most important motivating forces in Marta Niemywska’s work.
Currently Marta Niemywska works together with Bartosz Grynasz at Niemywska Grynasz studio. The couple has known each other since highschooland they have been working together since 2008.
As Niemywska Grynasz they have cooperated numerous times with MEESH. For this brand they prepared, among other designs, a simple modilar sofa Kubu. It consists of several cusions, differentiated in size, supported by a plywood spine. The sofa can be easily adapted to the user’s needs, as he/she can dismantle the elements and put them together in unique combinations, creating chaise longues, variations of sofas or armchairs.
Selected exhibitions and awards:
2015
- “Polish table”, EXPO, Milan
2013
- the Młoda Polska scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (Marta Niemywska)
- the Kordegarda Gallery, Warsaw – the Residency of the Forms and Shapes Foundation
- Festiwal Wroclove, Wrocław
- DomiDay, Warsaw
- Cieszyn Castle, Urban Gardening
- Cieszyn Castle, Design by Women
- Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), Everything, for Ever – Today. Balanced Polish and British
2012
- 1st place in the competition Global Festival Tent / Globalny Namiot Festiwalowy organized by the Polish Humanitarian Organization (Marta Niemywska and Dawid Grynasz)
- Łódź Design Festival, Lodz
- Design: the Polish way/the Georgian way / Dizajn: Po polsku/po gruzińsku, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
- Fishing / Wędkowanie, an artistic action organized by the Forms and Shapes Foundation, the installation Big Net / Siecisko, Moczydło Park, Warsaw
2011
- Warsaw Institute of Design’s nomination of the Modulor sofa for the award Dobry Wzór 2011 (Marta Niemywska and Dawid Grynasz)
- 1st place in the competition Young Design organized by the Institute of Industrial Design (Marta Niemywska)
- Design in Poland – Transition to Modernity, the Polish Patent Office, Geneva, Switzerland – group exhibition
- Good Model / Dobry Wzór, a post-competition exhibition, the Institute of Industrial Design, Warsaw
- Re.product 3 / Re.produkt 3, the Institute of Industrial Design in Warsaw – group exhibition
- International Design Festival Berlin "Home, Sweet Home", Berlin
2010
- Polish Design / Polski Design, an exhibition of the magazine ELLE DECORATION, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
- Łódź Design Festival, "Home, Sweet Home", Lodz
- Warsaw Design Week, "Proekodizajn"; Warsaw
- Arena Design Poznań,"Proekodizajn"; Poznan
2009
- Warsaw Under Construction / Warszawa w Budowie, the Museum of Modern Art In Warsaw
- Łódź Design Festival 2009, Lodz
- Exactly (W rzeczy samej), The Cieszyn Castle
Read more: http://www.martaniemywska.com/ (in Polish)
Author: Krystyna Łuczak-Surówka, September 2013. Update, July 2016, AM.
English translation: Garry Malloy