KONSTANTIN GRCIC
Known as one of today's most important industrial designers, Konstantin Grcic creates designs that are characterised by simplicity and intelligibility of form and material, which at the same time provoke in a humorous way. In his objects, pioneering production techniques as well as advanced materials connect with references to modern design classics. His products step beyond their functional qualities, capture the expressive core of the object and surprise with experimental components without losing in formal acuteness.
"Grcic’s design process and products are the end result of an iterative process of conceptualized thinking and physical making – a tightly spun dialectic of thought and praxis. They also illuminate the complex relationships between subjects and objects, between people and things. […] Certain works in Grcic’s oeuvre directly reference specific objects from design history’s modern canon, participating in a process of signification in time. What intrigues Grcic about examples from design’s past is the way in which they were based in – and reflective of – their own present day, at the time of their design. In these cases, somewhere in his design process he engages an object from history, and, without altering the core meaning of it, he re-charges it for the present through his new interpretation of it."
Robin Schuldenfrei, Subjective Objects – Historicity and the Design of Konstantin Grcic in Konstantin Grcic. Abbildungen/Figures, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2016
Image: chair_ONE, MAGIS, 2004, special all-black version, die-cast aluminium and concrete, 80 x 55 x 59 cm
Solo Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1965
Born in Munich
1990
Graduated in Industrial Design, Royal College of Art, London
Lives and works in Munich
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Denver Art Museum, Denver
Deutsches Museum, Munich
Design Museum, London
Die Neue Sammlung, Munich
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis
JIDA Japan Industrial Designer's Association, Nagano
La Triennale di Milano, Milan
Musée Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, Barcelona
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich
Museum of Modern Art MoMA, New York
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2017
Magliana Project
Padiglione di Pier Luigi Nervi, Rome
2016
Konstantin Grcic - Panorama
Hong Kong Design Institute, Hong Kong
Konstantin Grcic.Abbildungen
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld
97 | Hieronymus
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2015
Konstantin Grcic: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly
Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum, Munich
Konstantin Grcic – Panorama
Z33, Hasselt
2014
Konstantin Grcic – Panorama
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
Konstantin Grcic – Man Machine
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2011
Konstantin Grcic – Black²
Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie/Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw
Champions
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2009
Konstantin Grcic: Decisive Design
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
2007
This Side Up - Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Zurich
2006
Konstantin Grcic - industrial design. on / off
Haus der Kunst München, Munich
Konstantin Grcic - Industrial Design
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
2003
Konstantin Grcic
Mouvements Modernes, Paris
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017
Design Studio: Processes
Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich
à table!
Galerie Kreo, Paris
Les Objets Domestiquent
FRAC Nord-Pas De Calais, Dunkerque
2016
Répétition
Boghossian Foundation, Brussels
EPOCSODIELAK
Kaleidoscope project space, Milan
Tobias Rehberger presently
Neugerriemschneider, Berlin
Quiz, based on an idea by Robert Stadler
MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
100 | One piece a day
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2015
Family Matters: Cohen, Lambl. Designer's Choice
Kunstareal München, Munich
88 | shades of variety
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2014
85 | Only wood
Galerie Kreo, Paris
83 | des formes utiles
Galerie Kreo, Paris
82 | contrast control
Galerie Kreo, Paris
80 | convergences
Galerie Kreo, Paris
do it
Galleries at Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia
How Soon Is Now
Galerie Judin, Berlin
Quiz
GALERIE POIREL, Nancy
Der Brancusi-Effekt
Kunsthalle Wien Project Space Karlsplatz, Vienna
Home (Very) Sweet Home
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac - Paris, Paris
do it Moscow
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture - GCCC, Moscow
2013
12. Triennale Kleinplastik
Stadt Fellbach - Kulturamt, Fellbach
Spiel der Throne | Game of Thrones
Humboldt Lab Dahlem - Museen Dahlem, Berlin
Architectures domestiques
Galerie Alain Gutharc, Paris
2012
72 | Ensemble
Galerie Kreo, Paris
Bauhaus Live
The Aram Gallery, London
Galerie Kreo à Monaco - Art & Rapy
Contemporary Art Gallery, Monaco
69 | Tandem
Galerie Kreo, Paris
2011
The Then-now Show
The Aram Gallery, London
2010
Le Meilleur des Mondes
MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
2009
58 | 10 printemps en automne
Galerie Kreo, Paris
Minimal Funktional - Highlights aus der Daimler Kunst Sammlung zum Verhältnis von Kunst und Design
Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
DAS BLAUE LICHT. Der Hang zum Kristallinen in Kunst und Design
Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz
Twilight Zone- Art hits design
Niederösterreichische Museum, Vienna
2007
48 | Tabourets
Galerie Kreo, Paris
Nature Design - Von Inspiration zu Innovation
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Zurich
TOMORROW NOW - when design meets science fiction
MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
KONSTANTIN GRCIC & NITZAN COHEN
SPACE/-1, MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
2006
Eldorado
MUDAM - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
2003
27 | Miroirs
Galerie Kreo, Paris
Bozetti - vom 18. Jh. bis heute
Florian Sundheimer Galerie, Munich
2002
TRANS-POSITIONS
Centre d'Art Passerelle, Brest
2000
Lost & Found - Contemporary British Design: Critical Voices in the Culture of Co
Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Eds.): Konstantin Grcic Abbildungen/Figures, Zurich 2016
Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum/Walther König (Eds.): Konstantin Grcic: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly, Munich/Cologne 2015
Vitra Design Museum/Mateo Kreis (Eds.): Konstantin Grcic – Panorama, Weil am Rhein 2014
Archibooks (Eds.): Konstantin Grcic, Entretien avec Pierre Doze, Paris 2010
Serpentine Gallery London/Walther König/Konstantin Grcic (Eds.): Design Real, Cologne 2009
Plank Collezioni (Eds.): MIURA Stool. NYC 2006, Ora 2007
Phaidon Press (Eds.): KGID.Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, London 2005
Yoshio Futagawa/A.D.A Edita (Eds.): Furniture Designers: Konstantin Grcic, Tokyo 2004
ClassiCon/Konstantin Grcic (Eds.): Konstantin Grcic for ClassiCon, Munich 2003
Edizioni Charta (Eds.): Goethe, Grcic. Oggetti quotidiani, Alltagsobjekte, Quotidian Objects, Milan 2000
Selected Press
Tagesspiegel 2016
Monopol 2016