Driven by her desire to explore the nature of materials, glass in particular Justyna Poplawska creates furniture and design objects with intricate surfaces defined by painterly poetics. Thus, her work occupies the vital territory between painting, sculpture and functional object design.
Finding inspiration in old craftsmanship techniques and physicality of materials she developed a self crafted material based on recycled glass, bioresin and pigments which she transforms into designs rich in colour tonalities. In this process the coloured glass is collected as waste from local glass artists and small factories. It is then pulverised in a specially constructed grinder, thanks to which the glass particles come in many sizes. The resulting material is characterised by colourful surface which appears as subtle play of speckels against pigmented background.
Born in Poland, she lives and works in Copenhagen, where her designs come to life. Every product made in the studio is unique due to the manual production processes. These studio creations are mostly made to order where each piece undertakes a meticulous process of casting, hand sanding and polishing. Inspiration for the works comes also from the dialog with interior architects, who wish to apply Justyna’s material or objects in specific projects.
Justyna Poplawska was always fascinated by glass, which she first studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland where she also received classical art training. Later on, being driven by design and more collaborative approach to the design practice she pursued her education at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation in Copenhagen (KADK). Justyna exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions eg. London Design Festival, 3daysofdesign and her work were published in media such as RUM magazine, Ark Journal or Sight Unseen. Her projects has been supported by grants from renowned Danish institutions such as Danish Arts Foundation, Danmarks Nationalbanks Jubilæumsfond af 1968 and Otto Bruuns Fond.
