Dutch designer Sebastian Brajkovic (b. 1975) received his training at the Design Academy Eindhoven, and his work clearly represents the spirit of the school: training artists to create personal and conceptual design, where conventions and boundaries are constantly challenged and where the narrative becomes an integral part of the objects. Brajkovic's upcoming exhibition at the David Gill Gallery, the first since the gallery began representation is entitled 'Sebastian Brajkovic: The Occidental Artisan.'
His new pieces of furniture are not only sculptural and elegant, but also reflect conversations with history and with neoclassical legacies. Brajkovic's knowledge of 18th century decorative arts, ancient Chinese calligraphy, and craftsmanship has become the key commodity in this work, allowing him to bring history to the present with unique, intriguing, and beautiful, unusual distorted forms. His forms look effortless, despite the fact that there is a tremendous thinking process and production behind each one.
While the new pieces presented at the show are largely different than his early body of work, where digital production was the leading force, you can immediately recognize his signature. Whereas Brajkovic's early pieces looked like they are taken out of the future, the new ones look as if they were transported from an ancient era, all crafted by small and specialized artisan shops. 'I wanted to see the hand and even the finger in the clay and wax sculptures I was building' he told me, 'and I felt that working with computerized engineering made the work look dead. The soul disappears because you don’t need the human touch anymore to make things.'
The exhibition opens from September 13th through October 17th. All images courtesy of David Gill Gallery.
His new pieces of furniture are not only sculptural and elegant, but also reflect conversations with history and with neoclassical legacies. Brajkovic's knowledge of 18th century decorative arts, ancient Chinese calligraphy, and craftsmanship has become the key commodity in this work, allowing him to bring history to the present with unique, intriguing, and beautiful, unusual distorted forms. His forms look effortless, despite the fact that there is a tremendous thinking process and production behind each one.
While the new pieces presented at the show are largely different than his early body of work, where digital production was the leading force, you can immediately recognize his signature. Whereas Brajkovic's early pieces looked like they are taken out of the future, the new ones look as if they were transported from an ancient era, all crafted by small and specialized artisan shops. 'I wanted to see the hand and even the finger in the clay and wax sculptures I was building' he told me, 'and I felt that working with computerized engineering made the work look dead. The soul disappears because you don’t need the human touch anymore to make things.'
The exhibition opens from September 13th through October 17th. All images courtesy of David Gill Gallery.
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