{"id":2238,"date":"2026-07-16T03:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/graphic-design\/?p=2238"},"modified":"2026-07-16T03:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T03:13:28","slug":"at-warsaws-the-poster-festival-a-new-school-of-artists-emerge-alongside-an-overlooked-history-of-graphic-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/international.binus.ac.id\/graphic-design\/2026\/07\/16\/at-warsaws-the-poster-festival-a-new-school-of-artists-emerge-alongside-an-overlooked-history-of-graphic-design\/","title":{"rendered":"At Warsaw\u2019s The Poster Festival, a new school of artists emerge alongside an overlooked history of graphic design"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spanning the hidden Polish design pioneers of modern history, to the next generation of visual innovators, we report back from our visit to this expansive event dedicated to the humble but mighty medium of poster<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Nice That was invited to\u00a0The Poster: Festival of Posters, Post-Poster Forms and Experimental Graphic Design<\/i>\u00a0(11\u201314 June, 2026), a one-off celebration of new and classic generations of graphic design. On the plane over, I wondered \u201cwhat is a poster in the age of screens and AI?\u201d and \u201chow does the humble poster remain relevant today?\u201d But most of all: \u201cwhat is the Warsaw graphic design scene like?\u201d Little did I know, I was about to step into a new world of Polish design, from propaganda to playful plagiarism, digital grunge and experiments in legibility to ink-stained dance floors and celebrations of female graphic designers across the nation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The first thing I see when I come into the exhibition is a picture of Keanu Reeves, Willem Dafoe and Meryl Streep. This is an exhibition of posters exploring the boundaries of authorship, inspiration and remix. It has a non-author. It makes it very clear to me that the author is not (wink wink) Kuba Sowi\u0144ski. The works on display were created between 2017 and 2026 for the Poster Museum in Warsaw, the Krak\u00f3w Film Festival and the N\u00f3wka Sztuka art fair in Krak\u00f3w. The exhibition presents posters and graphic works that show how authorship and originality can be understood in contemporary design today \u2013 questions that are especially relevant in the time of the artificial intelligence revolution.<\/p>\n

There is a great variety of different styles at the exhibition, including blue-biro ink pen drawings of celebrities, which touch on how we perceive celebrities, bringing the red carpet to the poster world. As well as that, the visual references taken for the collage works range from contemporary graphic design to World War II propaganda, in some parts even remixing some of the Nazi symbology that oppressed Poland and bravely turns it into something new in the era of the remix. At London Gallery Weekend there were a great number of artists who were also touching upon the assemblage and collage of materials and artists pinching and purloining wherever they saw fit. In Poland, it\u2019s no different.\u00a0Not the Artist<\/i>\u00a0takes the image and makes it into its own plaque. The political undertones become overtones. The methodology is the paint.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kuba Sowi\u0144ski: But It\u2019s Not Me! (2026) Photography by Patryk Wisniewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Not the Artist’s<\/i>\u00a0interpretations use chalk and graphite and pen to reinterpret faces we\u2019ve seen our entire lives. As I stared into the menacing gaze of the villainous Willem Dafoe, I immediately picked up on his likeness. But there\u2019s something playfully elementary about these drawings, like they were found in the back of a bored teenager\u2019s maths book and brought to life through poster work, giving the impression that anyone can make a poster as long as they have a pair of scissors or pen or they simply have the means to amplify and enlarge images to the size of a poster. Perhaps the artist prefers to not be acknowledged to avoid copyright infringement malarkey. But on the other hand, the playfulness of authorship, which is constant hot topic in the graphic design world, is welcome, and the exhibition offered a reprieve from the litigious world of image and wage theft. Lovingly mocking our visual design through mock-ups, it was a fitting beginning to a festival that is fascinated by images and how we use them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNot the Artist takes the image and makes it into its own plaque. The political undertones become overtones. The methodology is the paint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Moore<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kuba Sowi\u0144ski: But It\u2019s Not Me! (2026) Photography by Patryk Wisniewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One of the central exhibitions to the festival, titled\u00a0Polish Female Graphic Designers 1945\u20131989<\/i>, is indebted to Alicja Kobza\u2019s\u00a0Graphic Designers: The Untold Stories of Polish Female Graphic Designers 1945\u20131989<\/i>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the first comprehensive study dedicated to recovering the forgotten history of female graphic designers in post-war Poland. She investigated why accomplished women were overshadowed by male colleagues, historical narratives that focused on men and how domestic responsibilities impacted women\u2019s careers (for instance,\u00a0Maria \u201cMucha\u201d Ihnatowicz<\/a>\u00a0was her family\u2019s main breadwinner and worked on the floor between the kitchen and dining table, while her husband occupied their studio and received all the historical recognition).<\/p>\n

The exhibition featured works by Lilian Baczewska-Lampert, Barbara Baranowska, Hanna Bodnar, Zofia Darowska and Ewa Frysztak, as well as Alicja\u2019s diligent efforts to track down dispersed archives which resulted in discovering long-lost works by Julitta Gadomska (which were still in pristine condition thanks to her son). Among many others, the exhibition is a natural extension of Alicja\u2019s efforts, combined with a passionate community of Polish designers who care deeply about an area of graphic design that remains to be fully seen.<\/p>\n

I met Katarzyna \u201cKasia\u201d Matul, a Polish design historian and curator responsible for the international poster collection at the Poster Museum in Wilan\u00f3w (2008\u20132010). Her book\u00a0The Artistic Legitimisation of the Poster in the Polish People\u2019s Republic 1944-1968<\/i>\u00a0opens with: \u201cfew artistic phenomena from the communist period in Poland have enjoyed as much recognition, both at home and abroad, as the poster. It is most commonly associated with the \u2018Polish School of Posters\u2019, which, according to art critics and historians, is characterised by its expressive, authorial, and highly subjective approach, manifested through the immediacy of graphic gesture in both illustration and typography.\u201d Kasia believes that the disappearance of the \u201cposter\u2019s commercial function as a consequence of the absence of a free market made it possible to value the medium primarily for its artistic qualities\u201d, neutralising a utilitarian character and moving it towards personal expression (which I saw in full effect later on) \u2013 but the poster in Poland is entrenched in a fascinating history, one that has economic, political and artistic dimensions far beyond my comprehension. Luckily, the exhibitions were here to introduce me to Poland\u2019s legacy of artistic legitimacy through the poster.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alicja Kobza: Polish Female Graphic Designers 1945\u20131989 (2026) Photography by Patryk Wisniewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Alicja Kobza: Polish Female Graphic Designers 1945\u20131989 (2026) Photography by Patryk Wisniewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Alicja Kobza: Polish Female Graphic Designers 1945\u20131989 (2026) Photography by Patryk Wisniewski<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe poster\u2019s commercial function as a consequence of the absence of a free market made it possible to value the medium primarily for its artistic qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasia Matul<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The festival saw the launch of the second issue of Polish design magazine\u00a0Plop \u2013<\/i>\u00a0Polish Design Revue<\/i>, edited by\u00a0Rene Wawrzkiewicz<\/a>,\u00a0Lars Harmsen<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marian Misiak<\/a>. Saddle-stitched and published by Slanted Publishers, the mag asks \u2018is Polish design polished or is polish the design?\u2019 Digging into tension between Polish identities and global aesthetics through critical perspectives, the quarterly revue investigates the overpolished and the depolished, in collaboration with Three Dots Type Foundry and the Polish Graphic Design Foundation. The launch was met with a packed room of graphic designers gathered by The Poster Festival to look at current themes in modern Polish design and especially the poster; is it a tool of struggle or zombie design, or is it a monument to past glory. Is it simply a decoration for apartments? What is the relevancy of the poster nowadays? It\u2019s not a polite magazine, that\u2019s for sure \u2013 it\u2019s razor-sharp and honest about tools of communication and artistic expression and how those work in modern contexts. It led brilliantly into the nearby exhibition, aptly titled the\u00a0New School of Posters<\/i>, where young designers are redefining the poster through illegibility and explosive visual ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lars Harmsen, Marian Misiak, Rene Wawrzkiewicz: Plop Issue 2 (Copyright \u00a9 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lars Harmsen, Marian Misiak, Rene Wawrzkiewicz: Plop Issue 1 (Copyright \u00a9 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lars Harmsen, Marian Misiak, Rene Wawrzkiewicz: Plop Issue 1 (Copyright \u00a9 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lars Harmsen, Marian Misiak, Rene Wawrzkiewicz: Plop Issue 2 (Copyright \u00a9 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The poster feels particularly important nowadays. As we\u2019ve moved into a progressively more image-based visual culture, where words are easily replaced with emojis, and social media feeds us infinite scrolls of images and videos (long gone are the days of the text-based forum), the poster not only proves its vitality and eternal relevance, but also finds new ways to merge text with images in imaginative ways. The event poster can be purely functional; legible and informative, but it can also be hyper-stylised, challenging, as artistic as a painting in a museum. At the\u00a0New School of Posters<\/i>\u00a0exhibition, a presentation of the newest clubbing posters and indie graphics from neo-rave to digital grunge were eye-opening and brilliant.<\/p>\n

Some posters felt more like fine art \u2013 flurries of modular shapes, networks of circles, squares, lines, stretched and blown up, purely decorative.\u00a0Plop<\/i>\u00a0magazine\u2019s Rene Wawrzkiewicz, one of the curators of the exhibition, tells me that their designs are in stark contrast to the history of Polish design \u2013 and I can see it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, these designs are mirroring London, Japanese and NYC styles of graphic design; hyper-stylised, youthful, cybernetic, futuristic \u2013 but in ways that aren\u2019t indebted to previous generations\u2019 ideas of the future, but entirely our own. The exhibition was an introduction to a new Xerox generation: a little grungy and messy, analogue media being used in exciting ways, Gen-Z to a T.<\/p>\n

Karolina Pietrzyk, part of\u00a0swamp.center<\/a>, featured posters that moved away from her signature twig-like designs to a poster that used melting gradient abstraction to block almost all of the information. As well as that, other styles showed gothic airbrushed designs of Doctor Doom puppetmasters by\u00a0\u0141ukasz Matuszewski<\/a>\u00a0and digital collages of found photography and glacial pools of liquified images by\u00a0Anna Wac\u0142awek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What the poster is, a way to aestheticise information and communicate visually, has been reimagined. Now, the modern Polish clubbing poster renders the image itself as the crucial information \u2013 it communicates more than event, date, place, etc, but mood, emotion, style, culture, all delivered with the urgency of a brick through a window. According to the curator, Warsaw\u2019s creative scene is becoming rapidly progressive; she tells me \u201cwe’ve never seen this before, but perhaps you, the younger generation, understand it very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u0141ukasz Matuszewski : The New School Of Poster (Copyright \u00a9 \u0141ukasz Matuszewski, 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Karolina Pietrzyk, Gilbert Schneider, Mateusz Zieleniewski: The New School Of Poster (Copyright \u00a9 Karolina Pietrzyk, Gilbert Schneider, Mateusz Zieleniewski, 2026)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n