Because we believe that two heads are better than one, the new joint effort between Equator Production and Henzel Studio – both respected manufacturers of artist-designed carpets – is especially worth celebrating. The initiative, named ‘The Carpet Kartell’, unveiled at New York gallery Tanja Grunert, with a sumptuous display of carpets from both parties on view until the end of the month.
The idea to team up struck Equator Production’s founders Petra and Ranbir Singh, and Henzel Studio curator Joakim Andreasson, when they met during a panel discussion at MOCA Cleveland last December. ‘Aside from our common interest in the making of artist-designed carpets, we clicked on a personal level and decided to collaborate and join forces as an association,’ explains Andreasson.
He adds, ‘We both acknowledged the need to re-affirm art carpets stature but, rather than set parameters, be open to the full potential of the media and work together to navigate across the worlds of art, design and decorative arts.’ To wit, the blockbuster roster of the group exhibition includes Juergen Teller, Douglas Gordon, Nan Goldin, Marilyn Minter, Helmut Lang, and Tom of Finland, among others.
Designed by Assume Video Astro Focus, produced by Henzel Studio
In addition to being equally accomplished and established in the tradition of realising artists’ vision in carpet form, both parties are just as motivated to add to the medium with their own contributions. Henzel Studio’s newest additions include a collaboration with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
‘[It’s] based on an unrealised artist’s book by Warhol I found, that had only been exhibited once prior in Pittsburg,’ recalls Andreasson. ‘Consisting of 38 octagonal pages, each page is a die-cut detail from Warhol’s print edition set of Marilyn Monroe, dated 1967, that includes ten variations of the iconic star.’
From there, they translated the pages into hand-knotted silk rugs and pillows. ‘The resulting designs and abstractions provide an unforeseen and detailed view of Warhol’s portrait of Monroe, where each rug serves as magnified close-ups through an octagon shaped lens,’ Andreasson explains. ‘In addition, [studio founder] Calle Henzel applied his signature designs traits to the original portrait of Monroe; freeform organic shapes, punk-like fringes and cut-outs. The idea of juxtaposing a very rare and obscure facet of Warhol’s work – with his most iconic subject – was very intriguing and has provided for a platform to make public a unknown body of work.’
Henzel Studio also presents a design by Wilhelm Sasnal, who created an original drawing for his carpet using pencil outlines on grid paper, and a two-piece carpet work by Douglas Gordon that serves as an homage to Courbet’s famous painting L’Origine du Monde. Equator Production’s works are just as impressive: nine new carpets including designs by Liam Gillick, Joseph Kosuth and Jonathan Monk.
The carpet designs span the spheres of art, design and decorative arts
As well as producing artworks of renowned artists, both Henzel Studio and Equator Production commit their own designs to carpet
Equator Production’s offerings include nine new carpets including designs by Liam Gillick, Joseph Kosuth and Jonathan Monk
Designed by Marilyn Minter, produced by Henzel Studio Collaborations
Designed by Nan Goldin, produced by Henzel Studio Collaborations
Both Equator Production and Henzel Studio look to encapsulate facets of contemporary art by working with a curated group of artists
A detail of Juergen Teller's rug, produced by Henzel Studio
Designed by Wilhelm Sasnal, produced by Henzel Studio
Designed by Jospeh Kosuth, produced by Equator Production
Installation view of Tanja Grunert gallery
Designed by Helmut Lang, produced by Henzel Studio Collaborations
Designed by Liam Gillick, produced by Equator Production
INFORMATION
‘The Carpet Kartell’ is on view until 31 May. For more information, visit the Tanja Grunert website
ADDRESS
Tanja Grunert
524 W 19th Street
New York NY 10011
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
-
Meet Kenia Almaraz Murillo, the artist rethinking weavingKenia Almaraz Murillo draws on the new and the traditional in her exhibition 'Andean Cosmovision' at London's Waddington Custot
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
