Grobelny started his career in Poland, graduating from the Department of Architecture and Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań, and then went on to pursue his studies at prestigious design schools in France: the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris, and the École Nationale des Beaux-arts in Lyon. Grobelny’s work was well appreciated in that country, earning him scholarships both from the French Government and the Le Pont Neuf Foundation.
Grobelny enjoys experimenting with small-scale furniture. Bookshelves, in particular, seem fertile soil for his imagination, giving bloom to such diversified ideas as a bookshelf in the form of a book, or a multifunctional, multitasking object that one can use as a nightstand, a bookshelf and a bookmark at the same time.
In his latest projects Grobelny explores different contrasts and juxtapositions of materials, yet does so with his characteristic minimalist approach. Sur le fil – a series of small tables – hovers somewhere between the realm of sculpture and that of functional objects. The clean lines of the white stand made of thin aluminum contrast with the sturdy circle of the wooden tabletop. The tabletop is notched in three spots, giving the user the freedom to set it on the stand in three different positions. When inserted into the last notch, it seems to almost fall, bringing the idea of balance into question and introducing an element of arresting finesse and tension to the object. A similar play of contrasting materials is also taken up in his Arc and Circle benches, which juxtapose aluminum with teak wood. Grobelny sees user needs as a crucial component of good design practice, stressing: