Art and Design

We discovered the Finnish artist Petri Niemelä during a visit to a gallery in Helsinki. We liked his work so much that we immediately acquired two smaller pieces. Meanwhile, the artist had many major solo exhibitions in Germany. His work often captures details and movements. The beauty of the shoulder or the neck of a woman draws us in and leads us to stand still for a while. In his cycle “The Beach”, the characters are laid out as a whole but seem longingly absorbed – a modern romance.

Sami Lukkarinen is one of Finland’s most influential contemporary artists. His work deals with the digitalization of our world, especially the personality in the time of Facebook. Pixelating the world, the pictures. Fragmentation of humans, of individuals. Even in the Middle Ages and especially during the Renaissance, there were portraits, but through the Internet and social media, portraits are a mass phenomenon, worldwide in a worldwide web. The depth of his work, however, can only really be experienced in the vicinity, in the analog world. This allows us to view the paintings from different angles and distances, leading to the discovery of more and more details. Many of his works are presented in large collections.

The fiberglass-reinforced plastic chairs from Charles and Ray Eames have accompanied us since our time at university. We love these chairs and are pleased that Vitra has been able to offer Eames fiberglass bowls for a long time now. This material offers a nice surface with a pleasant feel and convinces us more than any other plastic. In 1950 the Eameshalen came in different colors on the market and became a design classic of the modern age. Today, Vitra restores the sidechairs in six of the original colors. The color Elephant Hide Gray was for Eames a black with feeling – perfect for our QUARTIER-WIECK.

Konstantin Grcic is a leading designer and is known through worldwide exhibitions at the Design Museum London and Munich, as well as the Vitra Design Museum. His clear, modern designs have convinced us right away. The Chair One from 2004 is now a design classic and in the black version fits perfectly with our black wooden facade. Although it has an extremely modern design, the chair is a perfect fit and offers a high level of seating comfort: beautiful, modern and yet comfortable.

As children, we loved the wing chair of my parents. Everyone liked to sit in the family’s old heirloom. At any time of the day, the armchair was the favorite place for us and my father. There was a real competition for this place. Rune Krøjgaard and Knut Humlevik have created a modern version for NORR 11 with the Mammoth Chair. The two designers have modernized the classic wingback chair, without losing the feeling of a chair with raised side panels and the typical “ears”. The whole armchair is handmade from oak wood. This is how security feels in Scandinavian design – as it used to be.

The Pampa Mariposa Butterfly Chair was originally designed in 1938 by designers Antonio Bonet, Jorge Ferrari Hardoy and Juan Kurchan in Argentina. He is another classic of the modern age. From 1941 to the present day, an original can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In the fifties the armchair experienced a renaissance and became the expression of casual living. The Swedish manufacturer cuero produces the Butterfly Chair in top quality and best leather. The leg frame we chose in black. In the gallery of our house you can “browse” in this chair or just sit and enjoy the space.

The lighting designers Axel Meise and Christoph Kügler have reinvented the world of LED lighting. They combine state-of-the-art technology with consistent design: the Sento series from Occhio. The light play of the Sento luminaires was already sensational with halogen illuminants, but now it has become possible through the use of LED technology to provide luminaires with touch control (touchless control) and all this environmentally friendly through outstanding energy efficiency. For our house, of course, in matt black finish. The Occhio lights are used in the bedrooms, in the living room and as a floor lamp in the gallery.

The String Lights LED pendant light by designer Michael Anastassiades combines modern technology with modern design and provides exciting moments in addition to great light through the cable management.

The German photographer Michael Wesely is a renowned artist who depicts and thematizes the dimension of time in art with extreme long exposure. His work is shown in many exhibitions and collections around the world. Works by the artist belong to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Bonn and the State Collection of Modern Art in Munich.

The work STILLEBEN (October 5-14, 2011) will be presented at WIECK11.

The young street artist Fillin Guas was inspired by the musician 2Pac in his work YOU BETTER DIE YOUNG. Fillin creates pictures with letters and tags pictures, walls and objects with color or black and white. He himself sees his art as “Vandalism deluxe” and his works are full of vitality.

His work will be presented in WIECK11.