With the closure of the popular retrospective Patricia Urquiola: Between Craft and Industry, which took place at the Philadelphia Museum of Art between November 19, 2017 and March 18,2018, we take a moment to look back at her work for GAN. The theme of the exhibition perfectly describes Urquiola’s creations for GAN. From Mangas Original to Mangas Space, and from Bandas to Garden Layers, the common thread has always been craftsmanship.
Patricia Urquiola can genuinely be described as a ‘Renaissance Woman’. Trained at the University of Architecture Madrid Polytechnic she is equally comfortable designing buildings, interiors or industrial products. Her clients are a who’s who of the world’s most renowned furniture and design manufacturers, including GAN, Alessi, B&B Italia, Flos, Kartell, Moroso, and Haworth. Ever since 2015 she has been the Creative Director for Cassina, the renowned Italian design furniture company. All of her creations for these distinguished brands were part of the exhibition in Philadelphia, and it is especially fitting that these works are on display within a museum, as Urquiola has blurred the boundaries between craft, work of art and industrial design artefact.
To take just one example, the Garden Layers collection for GAN, which has already been recognised with numerous awards despite only being launched in 2017, is a clever mixture of elements and fabrics that allows users to design their own compositions. Innovative materials are combined with expertly woven fabrics to bring indoor design sensibility to the outdoors. This innovative spirit, daring and craft sensibility will undoubtedly result in exciting future collaborations with Patricia Urquiola, ones which we at GAN look forward to in the near future.
