SPAZIO NOBILE

Through this presentation, the gallery lifts the veil on a sensitive and universal vocabulary that is rooted in our shared imagination. The materials, although raw and derived from earthly resources, are here worked with delicacy and sensitivity in a direct and tactile relationship to the body and mind.

The use of color, stroke and texture defines well Spazio Nobile and the sculptural works which are selected for this first participation of the gallery at PAD London. Cherishing the East and West cultural dialogue for its infinite versatility, Spazio Nobile explores the facets of a distinctive art form that has spread across the contemporary applied arts and design disciplines. Painterly means both semi-abstract and figurative in painting but can also be connected to contemporary objects and furniture with a soul. Engaging the entire being, Paper Pleats and Lacquer Leaf innovative layering process of paper and Urushi lacquer by artist designer Pao Hui Kao (TW) – finalist of the Loewe Craft Prize – dialogue with the hand-built sculptures in glazed stoneware and the gouache “Memories of India”by Bela Silva (PT), the Filigree Pendant lights by Philipp Weber (DE) blown at Berlin Glas and the sophisticated wall collage mirror lightings by Joost van Bleiswijk (NL). Poetic and impressionistic, Jacqueline Surdell (US) draws upon her background as an athlete and painter to create textile art pieces that twist and expand beyond the confines of the frame. Within these knots lie allusions to the subjects of each piece, left for the viewer to connect and unravel. Handtufted with wool and fluoacryl, Vera Vermeersch (BE) paints with yarns a duo of kakemonos “Sul fresco della collina I&II” offering a panorama from her house overlooking the Piedmont valley. Like a walk, she draws a slice of landscape that depicts the freshness of the hill in the early morning, when the landscape blossoms. From the South to the Nordic countries, Ann Beate Tempelhaug (NO) expresses her inner feelings and landscapes through her wall stoneware porcelain brushworks. By using clay, she is not limited by a standard canvas, nor are the compositions that she creates; silversmith Adi Toch (IS/UK) investigates the patination in her luster vessels, feather artist Florence Coenraets (BE) depicts her own imaginary landscapes and Formes Libres (BE) captures nature’s artefacts into gold leaf. Most of the works are both introspective and expressive, appealing to the senses: “Echo” , mixed media on porcelain by Foyer Brisé (NL) are carrying art and design references to the Far East culture and fashion such as Martin Margiela and Dries Van Noten… in a mix of glazes and underglazes, nail polish and gold leaf;  The Queen Helmets by Åsa Jungnelius (SE); Diatomée molten glass sculpture vases by Garnier & Linker (FR) and Katherine Huskie’s (UK) Echinus and Ostreum hand blown and squeezed glass works are a trio of unique-of-a-kind creations in a random collection exploring the figuration and metaphors around the sea shells, diatoms and urchins. To complete the storytelling around the painterly, the chiseled burnt monoxyle bench by Kaspar Hamacher (BE), the cabinet “Comfort” in eroded metal and leather by Fabian von Spreckelsen (DE), the “Ceramic Wall Story” Mirror by Kiki van Eijk (NL) as well as the Bamboo Chair by Jin Kuramoto (JP) and The Bamboo Bridge Bench by Sebastian Herkner (DE) are reinforcing the functionality, stressing the artistic expression, the beauty and the aesthetics of the non-ornemental presence of the works on display.