In a quest to engage the public with the best design talents from all over the world, Luminaire invited the Israeli designer Ron Arad to speak about his work and interact with guests during a standing-room only event.
The unconventional, witty, and highly celebrated designer was schooled in architecture, yet he developed artistic and cultural interests outside his main area of study. His work is increasingly oriented towards design through a non-rhetorical, innovative use of materials, often experimenting with steel, aluminum and polyamide to conceive radical structures that redefine contemporary design.
For example, his Bookworm expresses itself in space large sculpture, whether a spiral, or a curlique, or a bent line, yet it functions seamlessly as a flexible strip-style bookshelf fitted with bookends. Known for his contribution to the ‘one-off’ phenomenon, where one-of-a-kind handmade pieces penetrate the market like works of art, Arad has exhibited in many major museums and galleries throughout the world and his work is in many public collections including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert museum in London, and the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.
Arad designs for prestigious international companies such as Vitra, Moroso, Driade, Alessi, and Cappellini. Guests were honored by his presence, entertained by his persona, and engrossed in his prolific work. The event offered the Chicago public a unique opportunity to interact with such a seminal designer.
Tuesday, June 11, 2002
