Modes

NILUFAR

Discovering, Crossing, Creating. Nina Yashar believes in valuing design to tell stories. She founded Nilufar Gallery in Milan in 1979. Originally located in via Bigli and specialized in antique carpets, a passion she inherited from her Iranian parents, the Gallery soon launched a series of pioneering shows. By the end of the Nineties, the Gallery, now located in via della Spiga, ventured into modern and contemporary furniture, showcasing the work of midcentury masters alongside unusual carpets, cutting-edge furniture and emerging designers’ pieces. Martino Gamper, Audrey Large, Bethan Laura Wood, Flavie Audi, Amy Lowry, Jonathan Trayte, EDXXKAT and Anestis Michalis are the Nilufar’s creatives whose work will become part of MODES’ online offering, shoppable via Concierge.

AUDREY LARGE

"I'm interested in playing with all digial aesthetics in a materialized object."

Straddling between art and object design, Audrey Large practice explores the potential of digital image manipulation processes applied to the design of our material surrounding.

STUDIO NUCLEO

“Artwork must be durable, original, functional, unique, handcrafted, material, indeterminate, experimental, relational and tell a story.”

Nucleo is a collective of artists and designers based in Torino, Italy. Directed by Piergiorgio Robino, Nucleo is active in contemporary art, design and architecture. The collective combines knowledge, theory, practice and production (theoria, praxis and poiesis), while its work derives from hands-on experimentation and takes inspiration from human and natural evolution.

DRAGA AND AUREL

Founded in 2007 in Como, Draga & Aurel is a multidisciplinary design studio that works in the fields of furniture, textiles, and interior design. Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow have enjoyed diverse backgrounds, ranging from fashion to art and crafts. Their original methods, combined with an artistic approach to materials and composition have led Draga & Aurel to become widely recognized for their smart, customised reinvention of vintage design items.

FLAVIE AUDI

Flavie Audi was born in 1986 in Paris, France and currently lives and works in London. She graduated from the architectural association in 2011 and received an MA in Glass from the RCA in 2014. Flavie Audi’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and institutions such as Venus Over Manhattan, Corning Museum, Tristan Hoare, Soneva Fushi, Zaha Hadid Gallery, David Gill, Stedelijk Museum Breda, Galerie Tanit, Karma International, Elisabetta Cipriani.

EDXXKAT

EDXXKAT is a duo composed of Katy Pititskaya (b. 1992) and Eduard Eremchuk (b.1994) architects and designers based in Moscow and Milan. They specialise in architecture, interior design and product design, with projects in international capitals such as Shanghai, New York, Milan, Moscow. The main philosophy behind their projects is the creation of unique spaces that combine contemporary culture, fashion, art and design.

ANDRES REISINGER

Andrés Reisinger (b.1990) is one of the most sought-after digital artists of the 21C. Originally from Argentina, he now creates carefully curated projects in his studio in Barcelona. His instantly-recognisable dream-like imagery have drawn interest from a plethora of multi-million-dollar collectors, brands and international art galleries alike.

BETHAN LAURA WOOD

“I use that space in between dream and wake to give thoughts a shape that they don't have. I leave that all collides and becomes something concrete.”

Fascinated by the deep connection that objects establish with their users, Bethan Laura Wood mirrors her personality in projects rich in symbolic and material stratifications. Laminated woods, glasses, aluminum and colored plastics generate kaleidoscopic patterns referring to faraway cultures from different countries, including Japan and Mexico. From his London studio, she coordinates multidisciplinary projects with international companies, while collaborating with Nilufar Gallery since 2010.

VIBEKE

“It’s hard for me to consider something without contemplating it from an architectural standpoint, even smaller objects have to collide with the principles of structure and form.”

Vibeke Fonnesberg Schmidt handbuilds one-off lamps in laser-cut plexiglass and brass. Her works have a complex sculptural tactility, as each element fold and unfold in a carefully choreographed practice at the intersection of mathematics and art. The potential of the colours characterizes her narrative quality, together with the juxtaposition of opal and transparent surfaces and the balance of lights and shades.

ANESTIS MICHALIS

Anestis Michalis is a visual artist based in Athens. His work is a contemporary take that centres imperfection as a necessary element of aesthetics. In his practice he creates clay vessels that translate to forms which break numerous rules of the medium, permitting an element of chance to play an imperative part of the final work. His practice is comprised by a blending of old and new ceramic techniques. Incorporating natural elements from stones to organic metals in his clay body which melt and eventually transform to the artwork, while retaining their own distinct composition and form, contributes to the ongoing conversation he attempts with his surrounding material references of nonhuman entities.

MARTINO GAMPER

“There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual.”

Martino Gamper loves to deconstruct the past for reconfiguring new contemporary scenarios. In his creative process – always on the border between art, craftsmanship and design – nothing is ever lost but always renewed, regaining life through multifaceted objects. While wood is his favorite medium, colors, fragments and scraps have always been at the root of his experimentation and research. He has been collaborating with Nilufar since 2007, and his works are exhibited in museums and institutions all over the world.

AMY LOWRY

Originally from Ohio, the artist grew up surrounded by meadow, creek, woods, and pasture. Amy Lowry gravitated towards the East Coast for high school and college, and moved to New York in 1979, where she worked in advertising and gallery management. She was introduced to a group of artist called “The New Literati”: tired of propaganda painting and “art serving politics”, they sought to create a new social atmosphere through simple depictions of everyday life, using traditional techniques and materials.

JONATHAN TRAYTE

“I’m drawn to the light of a bulb like an insect, its luminance and warmth is enticing, and I like to include one where I can.”

Jonathan Trayte’s sculpture, installation and functional design is informed by our global language of consumption. He reinterprets the natural world creating heavily saturated, surreal facsimiles in many varying materials. The work is a coming together of organic forms and saccharine colours. Glossy synthetic skins of paint give the work a colourful pop status, a chameleon appearance and an edible quality.