Warsaw – São Paulo – Warsaw

The Brazilian Modernism of Jerzy Zalszupin
Photo: Pion Studio
Warsaw, Poland 2025

Jerzy Zalszupin – architect and designer. Born in Warsaw in 1922, he fled with his family to Romania in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, escaping the Nazi-planned Holocaust. After the war, having obtained his architectural diploma in Bucharest, he emigrated to Brazil, where he adopted the name Jorge. He settled in São Paulo, a modern and rapidly developing city. As a young architect, he collaborated with renowned architects on the realization of important public buildings. He later founded his own studio and the furniture manufactory L’Atelier, which soon became one of the most significant brands of Brazilian modernism.

Today, decades later, his story symbolically returns to the place where his life and professional journey began — Warsaw.

The exhibition at Villa Gawrońskich is the first presentation in Poland and in Europe to offer such a comprehensive overview of the work of a designer whose name — although better known in Brazil than in his country of birth — has long been included among the most important figures of twentieth-century design. The exhibition aims to introduce audiences to Zalszupin’s unique design philosophy, his modernist sensibility and his contribution to the development of Brazilian design. At the same time, it seeks to situate his work within the broader context of Polish visual culture.

Among the more than thirty objects presented — from the iconic Dinamarquesa armchair to the organic forms of the Pétalas tables and the minimalist constructions of his chairs and sofas — the exhibition also features architectural projects, original sketches, photographs and the story of the L’Atelier manufactory. It also reveals a more personal dimension of Zalszupin’s life through the presentation of his home in São Paulo, portraying him not only as a master of modernism but also as a devoted husband and father of two daughters.

Arch. Maria Murawsky — curator and exhibition designer