Julia Keil, née Ringel (1902-1942) was a Polish sculptor and decorative metal designer. She was born in Stryj into a Jewish family. She attended secondary school in Lviv and Vienna. In 1922 she married Ignacy Keil. In 1924 the family settled in Warsaw. A year later Keilowa started her studies at the State School of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Sculpture. From 1932 she cooperated with the Warsaw silver and gold plate company Fraget, and subsequently with the plants of Norblin and Henneberg Brothers. Her designs in the style of Art Déco were quickly to gain the acknowledgement of critics and clients. In 1933 she founded a decorative metal workshop. For the years 1932-1939 she participated in the artistic life of the Polish capital, systematically displaying sculptures and everyday objects at collective exhibitions. In 1937 at the international exhibition in Paris she won a gold for her plate design for Fraget. In 1938 she held her own solo exhibition of plate metal work. Keilowa was famed within circles of friends and artists for her energy and strenght, she was full of initiatives and ideas. In 1939 she escaped to Lviv where she ran a porcelain workshop. She returned to Warsaw in 1941 and hid from the Germans beyond the ghetto proper.. In 1942 (1943, according to family accounts), she was murdered by the Gestapo.

Find out more about the exhibition: https://muzeumwarszawy.pl/en/wystawa/julia-keilowa-designer/