Exploring culture and aesthetics, designer Michael Anastassiades creates products, furniture and environments that provoke dialogue, participation and interaction. Each project is approached with a keen sense of reduction that results in products that are characterized by purity of form and honesty of materials. His designs are deceptively simple, meticulously detailed and showcase his mastery of proportion and form.
Born in Cyprus, Anastassiades showed interest in artistic pursuits from a young age. Upon completing his military service, he moved to London where he studied civil engineering before receiving his masters in design from London’s Royal College of Art. Soon after, rather than following the traditional path of freelance-designing for established brands, Anastassiades set up his own studio to handle design and production. This arrangement, while risky, allowed him to have complete control over the integrity of his projects.
Aided by early collaborations with notable architects, Anastassiades notoriety began to grow. Soon, he received commissions for private patrons and clients around the world mesmerized by his poetic designs which blur the line between fine art and design. With a mission to create objects of permanent value, Anastassiades set up a new company under his name in 2007 to produce unlimited editions of his designs. Each product is handmade and stamped with the designer’s mark and is manufacture red with the purity of his original vision.
With a wide range of products in his portfolio, Anastsassiades is best known for his lighting design, most stunning of which are his mobile chandeliers. These elegant and refined lights employ only the most essential elements to arrive at a final product that is highly intelligent and surprising in their sculptural elegance. While simple in appearance, the work is far from ordinary; the kinetic lights enter into a dialogue with the space they occupy, gently swaying and changing into a seemingly infinite number of shapes. Comprised of linear tubes made of black finished brass, geometric mouth blown glass light sources and counterbalancing weights, the fixtures feature highly intricate engineering which allows for the precariousness of the chandeliers.
During 2011’s Art Basel and Design Miami, Luminaire hosted and exhibition of Anastassiades mobiles. While simple in appearance, the work is far from ordinary; the kinetic lights enter into a dialogue with the space they occupy, gently swaying and changing into a seemingly infinite number of shapes. Comprised of linear tubes made of black finished brass, geometric mouth blown glass light sources and counterbalancing weights, the fixtures feature highly intricate engineering which allows for the precariousness of the chandeliers.
Most recently, Anastassiades has partnered with Flos for two collections of captivating lights. Introduced at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2013, these pieces showcase the designer’s characteristic sensitivity to form, material and proportion in an industrialized product. Minimal and poetic like a pencil line drawn in the air, the String Light is a study in reduction and simplicity of form. Rather than try to hide the lighting cables, the wiring was used to draw neat, precise lines across a clean space. These lines formed by the light creates a relationship with the walls of a room and enhances the architecture.
Shortly, Luminaire will again be welcoming Anastassiades in our Miami Design District showroom. On September 23rd, the designer will present a captivating lecture and exhibition of his latest designs for Flos.
August 2014
