15 May – 17 July, 2026
The Pilecki Institute in New York, Small gallery, floor 2
92 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10006

Open on weekdays: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Free admission

The Pilecki Institute in Manhattan will host the exhibition “Zieta Illustrated”—an interdisciplinary presentation of Polish design and illustration, prepared in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Pilecki Institute in New York. As part of NYCxDESIGN, the exhibition marks a key stage in the project and is its most comprehensive international presentation to date. The curatorial narrative is based on the idea of connecting disciplines. It brings together Oskar Zięta’s metal objects with their individual illustrated interpretations by Polish artists, creating a multidimensional dialogue between image and form.

Zieta Studio combines various disciplines—art, design, engineering, and technology on a daily basis. Within this interdisciplinary framework, the studio is strongly committed to promoting Polish creators worldwide. Therefore, the Zieta Illustrated project was founded, aimed at supporting young artists and telling stories of creation together. The concept features a series of limited-edition prints showcasing iconic Oskar Zięta’s objects through the eyes of some of the most acclaimed Polish illustrators.

Invited illustrators share Zieta Studio’s passion for creating experiences. Steel-formed objects are reinterpreted through individual artistic perspectives and brought together within a unified exhibition concept—juxtaposing illustration with the illustrated object. The project stands as a testament to the potential of Polish creators and sparks inspiring conversations around graphics, design, and emotion.

Zieta Studio is a place where a hybrid design–development–research–production machine is run. It is where technology meets art, design intertwines with research in materials science and engineering, and flat metal membranes are inflated into three-dimensional objects. This Polish experimental production studio, constantly moving between the virtual and the real world, blends advanced algorithms with craftsmanship.

Both Zieta Studio’s unique forms and production technologies are deeply inspired by the world of bionics and the complexity of natural mechanisms. The proprietary FiDU technology itself resembles the process through which a dragonfly extends its wings by pumping body fluid into narrow channels of the wing tissues, causing the wings to expand and become structurally stable. Zieta Studio applies a similar process of “pumping” metal, referred to as volumetric expansion.

FiDU is the process that Oskar Zięta—the head of the studio—refers to as a “controlled loss of control.” It comes from the German Freie Innendruck Umformung, which translates into English as “free internal pressure forming.” Flat metal elements are edge-welded and then, through the process of air pressing, acquire their final three-dimensional form. Before deformation, parameters are defined by the designers, but during the air inflation phase, the material retains its freedom to self-deform, resulting in unique edge distortions. The outcome of this process is hollow, lightweight, and incredibly durable objects.

The interdisciplinary endeavours of Oskar Zięta seamlessly blend design, art, engineering, and bionics. Each object represents a meticulous study of the properties of metal, techniques for stabilizing it, and optimization of form. They embody the outcomes of complete processes — simultaneously controlled and unrestrained. These are enduring, monomaterial artifacts that are remarkably lightweight. In their artistic forms, they manifest a profound fascination with nature, emerging technologies, and above all, the material itself.

At the core of Zięta’s achievements lies his proprietary method of internal pressure forming of steel, known as FiDU (Freie Innendruck Umformung). It is thanks to FiDU that the iconic objects of the Plopp stool and Ultraleggera chair have come into existence, as well as public sculptures: Wir (2017) at the Galeria Północna in Warsaw, the Nawa city pavilion on Daliowa Island in Wrocław (2017), Hempel in Wrocław (2024), and Whispers in London (2025).

Oskar Zięta’s work has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Red Dot Design Award, the Audi Mentor Preis, the Must Have, and the Schweizer Design Preis. In 2019, the Nawa pavilion was nominated for the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award. Oskar Zięta has collaborated with brands such as Audi, Architonic, Rado, and Pirelli.

His work is found in dozens of museums worldwide, including the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, the Pinakothek in Munich, the Jerke Museum, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Oskar Zięta resides in Wrocław (Poland), where he runs Zieta Studio. Oskar Zięta Architekt, projektant procesów i artysta Architect, process designer, artist.