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This article is a part of our Design particular part about modern surfaces in structure, interiors and merchandise.
Last Thursday the New York gallery Friedman Benda opened “On the Road,” a take a look at the work of the Campana Studio, which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary.
This is the gallery’s fifth showcase of the studio, which was based by the Brazilian brothers Fernando and Humberto Campana in 1984 — earlier than they grew to become a design-world sensation for items like an armchair composed of uncooked wooden items paying homage to the cobbled-together homes in Brazilian favelas, and lounge chairs upholstered in stuffed animals. But it’s the first since Fernando’s sudden loss of life, at age 61, in November 2022.
This exhibition presents a take a look at how the studio, beneath Humberto’s path, is carrying on the brothers’ work.
Humberto, 70, referred to as Fernando’s passing “an amazing loss,” however one which “has given me a whole lot of inspiration — in goals and instinct.” He got here up with the exhibition’s title, he stated, “to indicate the place we got here from — the southern continent, which is each large and small, wealthy and poor.”
The Campanas had been recognized for utilizing native supplies and methods, and the exhibition will embody items from the Capim Dourado collection, together with a wooden buffet by which the golden-toned fiber of that title is become roundels that elegantly adorn the outside. Humberto additionally experimented with aluminum scraps (a cloth launched to him by Fernando), which grew to become mirror frames, lighting fixtures and benches, their curly texture including a glamorous, barely Baroque aura.
The Campana studio, in São Paulo, is a light-filled, expansive house that the brothers moved into not lengthy earlier than Fernando’s loss of life. The interiors embody a library lined with metallic Ferrero Rocher chocolate-hazelnut sweet wrappers.
On land given to them by their household in Brotas, Brazil, the place they had been born, they planted 20,000 bushes and quite a few vegetation. “Four years of Bolsonaro’s authorities had been very exhausting,” Humberto stated of the Brazilian president who allowed in depth destruction of the Amazon rainforest. “And this house grew to become my temple, a spot of therapeutic.” The Instituto Campana, which the brothers based to protect their archives and legacy, can also be situated in Brotas.
These days, Humberto continues to be very a lot on the street. He is collaborating with the filmmaker Francesca Molteni on a documentary, in addition to revisiting vegetation used as structure, just like the wall of cactus that separated his childhood house from that of his neighbor.
He stated the trauma of dropping his brother and closest collaborator had solely made him stronger. “I’ve been very impressed since then,” he stated. It confirmed me to not waste my time.”
“Estúdio Campana: On the Road” is on view via April 20 at Friedman Benda, 515 West twenty sixth Street; friedmanbenda.com
