A Life Less Ordinary, Mia Karlova Galerie features at Collectible Salon
Launching as part of this year’s Collectible Salon in Brussels, which runs from the 28th May - 23rd July 2021, A Life Less Ordinary is a unique gallery offering from Mia Karlova Galerie.
Image credit: Paper Chair No5 by Vadim Kibardin, A Life Less Ordinary, Mia Karlova Galerie.
Mia Karlova Galerie was founded in 2020 by Amsterdam-based interior designer Mia Karlova. The gallery is, in particular, driven to explore reuse and repurpose, as a conscious act of new existence. Offering up a distinctly fresh curated collection of functional sculpture and works which delve into various genres, A Life Less Ordinary looks to examine the transformations reshaping our habits and surroundings.
Interior design and founder Karlova, explains ‘This past year has drastically changed our lives and shifted our realities. During self-isolation, some felt desolate due to being apart from loved ones while others, continually surrounded by people, were desperate for privacy. We stayed at home, stopped traveling, moved online, and started observing things we hadn’t noticed before. This change of focus has altered our perception of ordinary life.’
‘This past year has drastically changed our lives and shifted our realities. This change of focus has altered our perception of ordinary life.’ - Mia Karlova
Who are the contributing artists and designers?
Image credit: Paper Chair No5 by Vadim Kibardin, A Life Less Ordinary, Mia Karlova Galerie.
Vadim Kibardin
Vadim Kibardin delves into a conscious and responsible approach to consumption. As a result of global lockdowns, the only recourse to material consumption for many households around the world has been online shopping, resulting in vast quantities of discarded cardboard boxes, such that many cities have struggled with waste removal. With his Black Paper collection, Vadim offers his contribution towards achieving a circular economy, creating sculptural, highly aesthetic, and fully functional furniture out of cardboard boxes.
Image credit: Surfaced Coat Rack by Sho Ota, A Life Less Ordinary, Mia Karlova Galerie.
Sho Ota
Home is also at the core of Sho Ota’s research, focussing on the appeal of the forms and textures that surround us. Sho’s Surfaced collection stemmed from a desire to reveal the structures beneath industrial surfaces. For example, the IKEA-like flash wood sheet tables which all have hidden structures under wooden pattern sheets.
Sho’s new coat rack displays the structure of the wood to the viewers, leaving nothing hidden, but also reimagines a common piece of peripheral furniture into a functional sculpture deserving of admiration and attention.
‘Functional art is not just about shape, material or function. As any other art form, functional art is primarily about emotional connections. We surround ourselves with objects which give us pleasure of contemplation.’ - Mia Karlova
Image credit: The Lightbox No1 by Olga Engel, A Life Less Ordinary, Mia Karlova Galerie.
Olga Engel
Olga Engel is known for her minimalistic forms and poetic designs. The Lightbox #1L is conceived for the “new normal”, where the home becomes the true centre of life. Our perception of this familiar piece of furniture is changed when embedded with unexpected functions and new emotions. No longer an ordinary light-box, here spaces for social interaction as well as conscious privacy have been created.
Aged-glass creates a poetic atmosphere inside the vitrine, a door turns it into a jewellery box, a sculpture or any object of contemplation can be placed inside. A low table can be a place for a stack of favourite books or a cup of coffee. And the lighting element unites all these scenarios into a whole. With this object, light and playful emotions are added to the home.
There are two ways to view A Life Less Ordinary, online and in person.
'A Life Less Ordinary’
Online show: 28 - 30 May / Previews: 26 - 27 May Collectible Salon
salon.collectible.design
In-Person show: 28 May - 23 July / Previews: 26 - 27 May Mia Karlova Galerie
Prinsengracht 510
Amsterdam 1017 KH
Feature: Rory Robertson
Images: Mia Karlova Galerie