Brazilian architect and interior designer Gustavo Neves has always struggled to find pieces that fit with his aesthetic ideas, where materials are left in their raw state and their wild nature respected and enhanced. So for the interiors commissioned by private clients worldwide, Neves started designing his own objects, now for the first time part of a capsule launched by The Invisible Collection.
Originally from the city of Jaú, Brazil, Neves spent his childhood experiencing craftsmaship with his grandfather, who specialised in making string instruments and wooden toys; this early exposure to craft inspired him to eventually create things of his own and equipped him with a special sensibility for raw materials.
I am not the author, but the co-author, along with the nature
‘[Gustavo’s] designs are powerful and raw, aesthetically compelling and utterly uncommon,’ say the brand’s co-founders Anna Zaoui and Isabelle Dubern (who know a thing or two about talent, having edited pieces from Pierre Yovanovitch to Vincent Darrè among others). ‘His work strikes a chord with all of us concerned about the future of our planet: Gustavo truly sees architecture and interior decoration as a means to reconciling man and nature,’ they continue.
Neves’ sculptural furniture always features natural raw materials contrasting with man-made elements. ‘I say that I am not the author, but the co-author, along with the nature,’ he says.
As well as launching the best pieces from his vast interiors archive, Neves also designed new furniture, a collection of lamps, tables and accessories in bronze and white selenite titled Enso. ‘I chose bronze because it can be moulded by hand, it has a neutral colour and a surface with textures and irregularities, explains Neves. ‘Bronze allows me to create sculptures that do not compete with the raw material I want to highlight.’
In this collection, two distinct aesthetics come together to create the tension between the rugged and the polished – a balance which Neves likens to the relationship between the elements of a tree. ‘The bronze parts would be the trunk and the branches, while stones and crystals would be the fruits,’ he notes. ‘Together they make up a single being, which is the tree.’
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