> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Polish government covers most of Warsaw gallery's Collectible New York budget - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/polish-government-covers-most-of-warsaw-gallerys-collectible-new-york-budget/ - Published: 2026-11-06T04:05:55.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-06T04:05:55.000Z - Description: Objekt's co-founder said the grants helped ship its work to the fair, which opens Friday in a former Upper East Side movie theater. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Market and Money, #public-access The Polish government is paying about 71% of a Warsaw design gallery's budget for Collectible New York, the contemporary design fair opening Friday on the Upper East Side, a funding notice at the gallery's booth shows. "We got some grants to come here because shipments are expensive," Marcin Studniarek, a co-founder of the gallery, Objekt, told Urgent Matter during a preview of the fair. "It's a big challenge to go through customs, so it's a lot of work. But we're proud to be here, and it's a great journey." The notice lists the project, "Objekt Gallery at Collectible New York 2026," at 252,177 zlotys, about $64,490, with the state paying 178,177 zlotys, about $45,570, under an agreement signed in May. Polish law requires recipients of state money to display such notices. Objekt's October 16 [announcement](https://objekt.gallery/blogs/news/collectible-new-york?ref=urgentmatter.press) says the money came from Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage through a program run by the Institute of Creative Industries. Studniarek said it was to "promote Polish culture" and young artists. [Add Urgent Matter on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=urgentmatter.press&ref=urgentmatter.press) Objekt's booth focuses on artists reinterpreting Polish heritage, Studniarek said. It features a steel-and-wicker chair by Paweł Grunert, whom he called a well-established "predecessor of collectible design in Poland." Grunert died this year, [the gallery's website](https://objekt.gallery/blogs/artists/pawel-grunert?ref=urgentmatter.press) shows. Szymon Keller, a designer from the Polish coast who lives in Barcelona, made a steel-and-resin console referring to amber. The design duo Wiktoria and Filip Bielicki gather pieces of nature in the woods and scan them before a robot shapes the forms in steel, Studniarek said. The booth also features work by Aleksandra Zawistowska, Jan Ankiersztajn and Basia Pruszyńska. Collectible, which began in Brussels in 2018, runs through Sunday at 210 East 86th Street, a former movie theater. More than 100 exhibitors from over 25 countries fill six sections, [the fair's website](https://collectible.design/collectible-nyc/?ref=urgentmatter.press) shows. ## Sign up for Urgent Matter This article is provided free with the support of paying subscribers. Not ready for a paid subscription? Sign up for a free account today. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The fair's first two New York editions were held in September at the WSA building in the Financial District, Collectible's website and a [2025 press release](https://collectible.design/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/COLLECTIBLE-NYC-2025-General-Press-Release.docx.pdf?ref=urgentmatter.press) show. In June, Collectible announced new November dates and said the fair would be held at a downtown location to be announced. The new dates overlap with Salon Art + Design, which runs through Sunday at the Park Avenue Armory. "I think the point was to piggyback off that, because that draws a lot of buyers and designers," said Lauren Williams, founder of [Studio Solenne](https://www.studiosolenne.com/about?ref=urgentmatter.press), a Brooklyn interior design and creative studio showing at Collectible for the second year. "So people who go there will just make this stop because it's so close. That's what I think they're hoping." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/11/collectible-urgent-matter-1.jpg) An installation view of a chair made by Indian designer Upasana Jain. Photo by Adam Schrader/Urgent Matter Collectible's press release and website do not say why the dates changed or whether they were chosen to line up with Salon. Williams said she curated Studio Solenne's booth and made its boudoir pillows from vintage panels from the 1920s she found. Her frequent collaborator, Michele Mirisola, an oil painter by training who runs the Brooklyn studio [Chell Fish](https://www.hampshire.edu/news/she-sells-seashells-michele-mirisola-08f-mixes-media-and-inspiration-her-home-goods?ref=urgentmatter.press), made shelves from epoxy clay and painted a bench. "With this booth, it's almost like more is more. We're being ornate for the sake of being ornate," Williams said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/11/collectible-urgent-matter-2.jpg) A closeup view of beeswax candles shown by Aleksandra Smetanina and her Paris gallery SM Bureau at Collectible New York. Photo by Adam Schrader/Urgent Matter "I always thought, wouldn't it be cool if all the stuff in this gorgeous painting that you love was in your home?" Mirisola said. Williams said she counts the fair as "a marketing budget." "People will know we exist only if we do a fair," she said. "Sometimes we sell things or get projects based on what we show." When asked whether the fair pays off as marketing, Mirisola said "it's a slim margin." "I can just give a concept when I apply and run with it," Williams said of why the studio came back. "I don't need to show exactly the booth I'll do, which is nice." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/11/collectible-urgent-matter-4.jpg) An installation view of a booth by Studio Solenne and Michele Mirisola at Collectible New York. Photo by Adam Schrader/Urgent Matter She said the multilevel former theater is "obviously extremely raw" and that it took "more effort for them to get this place ready than previous buildings." The smell of wet paint lingered during the preview. "Many people won't be able to take a lunch break because this is their booth," Williams said of the exhibitors. She said Collectible is more personal than bigger fairs because it is not "just some big company curating a very white space for other artists." "It's an approachable way to start collecting. A lot of people are scared of fine art," Mirisola said. She said the fair "doesn't feel pretentious" and is "more affordable than your average art fair." At the booth of [Artisanal Abode](https://londondesignfestival.com/partners/artisanal-abode?ref=urgentmatter.press), a studio from Pune, India, that weaves strips of metal into furniture, wall pieces and lamps, prices start around $10,000 and rise with the weight of the piece, said a woman named Manali, who represented the studio's founder, designer Upasana Jain. "It's more about the Indian hands. It's all handmade," she said. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/11/collectible-urgent-matter-5.jpg) Seahorse objects on view at a nautical-themed booth by French gallery Casa Sòler. Photo by Adam Schrader/Urgent Matter Manali said this is the studio's first time at Collectible, after showing in London and Milan, and that it has exported work to Spain and Italy. She said the studio ships its pieces from India in boxes, ready to use without assembly. "It's just that it's a little heavy," she said. "I'll be frank. We've been working on this for the last three years. This year has been nice for us," she said. Blanca Codina, a Spanish-born designer represented by the New York gallery [Otras Formas](https://salon.collectible.design/exhibitors/otras-formas?ref=urgentmatter.press), showed a table lamp with two columns made of sand. "It's a specific 3D printing process that mixes sand in a binder and solidifies the sand by layers," Codina said. She said a manufacturer in Germany prints the sand pieces. "Especially as a designer, everything should be able to be touched, to live with," Codina said. Codina is also showing patinated brass candleholders that she said she made herself. "None of them is going to be the same, because I like how the casting process sometimes makes them a bit different," she said. At SM Bureau, a Paris gallery founded in 2025, founder Aleksandra Smetanina is showing "Echoes of Matter," a 12-artist exhibition of work in wood, stone, ceramics and other materials. She said visitors are allowed to touch the pieces, "to sit on them, touch them, to smell them." "You can do whatever you want," Smetanina said. She said the booth's beeswax candles, oiled and burnt wood and natural oak chair each give off their own scent. Smetanina said she wants people to have objects at home they can connect with. "It's very important because we live in a modern world with a lot of A.I. and other not-very-alive stuff," she said. Smetanina said she thinks Europeans are "more into all this stuff," like ceramics and natural materials, than Americans. "I have a lot of clients in America, in Paris," she said. "They are really searching for the special objects from the natural materials that can be touched." After New York, SM Bureau plans to show a larger version of "Echoes of Matter" at its Paris space this winter. *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. Please* [*consider subscribing*](https://www.urgentmatter.press/mta-first-amendment-museum-of-sex-bus-ads/#/portal) *to support independent arts journalism.*