Natasza Grześkiewicz

Natasza Grześkiewicz creates modern interpretations of dinnerware sets. Her delicate white plates are far from the polished perfection of traditional porcelain. Instead of smooth surfaces, the artist introduces rough textures, and instead of traditional edges, her plates are full of splashes, spots, and unusual marks.

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Natasza Grześkiewicz, photo: courtesy of the artist

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Natasza Grześkiewicz

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Natasza Grześkiewicz, photo: courtesy of the artist

Grześkiewicz graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and received her diploma in industrial design. She has international experience, as she has already been an intern at the famous Polish Ćmielów porcelain factory and the Dutch European Ceramic Work Centre and she also studied in Portugal. She collaborates with Rygalik studio as a product designer.

Her favourite material is porcelain. It is this old technique that she most eagerly works and experiments with, yet challenges its traditional finishings. She re-establishes the existing schemes, pointing out the true nature of the material that she works with: its fragile and extremely delicate structure. Instead of working against that, Grześkiewicz accentuates these features, letting the cracks and irregularities stand out in her work. These distortions and ‘stumbles’ lie at the heart of her creative process.

Works by Natasza Grześkiewicz – Image Gallery

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The Service Collection was the artist’s graduation collection at the European Ceramic Work Centre. The process of creating a dinnerware service was compared to the process of preparing food. Playing with this analogy, Grzeskiewicz walks away from the standard methods of preparing the material, mixing the raw material with nonchalance, not really sticking to the typical recipe. It is rather intuition that leads the artist’s hands. The runny raw material drips on the edges of the plate leaving splashes, yet she does not smoothen them out or remove them. She uses a knife to spread out the casting as if she were spreading butter on bread. Yet she isn’t really worried about achieving a perfectly smooth surface, letting herself get carried away in the moment, experimenting, creating a composition spontaneously. The result is a dinnerware service in which each piece is original. Her tableware bares the traces of the process of its creation which tells a poetic story, where spontaneity and experimenting play a crucial role.

Natasza Grześkiewicz’s pieces have been shown on exhibitions in Poland and around the world. Her Service Collection was chosen as amongst the most interesting contemporary Polish ceramic designs.

Author: Agata Morka, September 2015, Translated by: Zuzanna Wiśniewska

Selected exhibitions and awards:

2014

- What goes behind…Contemporary Polish ceramic design, Hong Kong

- Silver Festival, Legnica

- Around the table, Łódź Design Festival; Institute of Design, Kielce

2013

- Around the table, DMY Berlin

ceramics

design

industrial design