Artemest Galleria is a 5,000-square-foot gallery and design space that showcases the very best in Italian contemporary craft and design. The company’s co-founder and creative director, Ippolita Rostagno explains, “The whole mission of Artemest is to represent Italian craftsmanship in a new light so that people can relate to it not just as an old-world thing that exists in Europe, or conversely as part of the new maker culture in Brooklyn. All these things have a distinct look and an association, and so we were trying to extract the idea from these associations while shining a light on the actual workmanship itself.”
Artemest founder Ippolita Rostagno with work from BLOW.
The gallery’s first exhibition, BLOW, is a collaboration between Caribbean-born, Miami- and New York-based artist Bradley Theodore and the glass artists of Murano, Venice, including Ongaro e Fuga, Fratelli Tosi, Luci Italian, Specchi Veneziani, Multiforme, Venice Factory, and Covi e Puccioni. The pieces Theodore created with the Murano artisans include motifs like pineapples and skulls inspired by his Caribbean heritage, combined with traditional Venetian craft such as mouth-blown mirrors with hand-etching or Rezzonico blown-glass chandeliers. The exhibition was first presented in June for Salone del Mobile in Milan, and will be open in Chelsea through January 2023.
Rostagno says, “Our idea was the islander, Theodore meets the island, Murano. These artists used their traditional skills and craft, but incorporated motifs and colors that were unusual for them. It’s really a combination of art and craft.”
Artemest represents over 1,400 artisans whose work runs the gamut from decorative objets, wallcoverings, and tiles, to handcrafted furniture. Rostagno shares that she started Artemest after seeing so many artisans and craftspeople unable to survive in her native Italy. She decided to do something about it. “I realized that while they knew their craft, the thing that was missing was that they didn’t know how to sell it and market it. So, I wanted to put together the context for them to be able to connect with the outside world.” The gallery also functions as a design atelier, where designers and architects can come in to look at hand-made tiles and wallcoverings from Artemest’s roster of craftspeople, and work with Rostagno and her team to customize and tailor many of the offerings to their needs.
Tiles by Vincenzo Messina (top), Romano (bottom left) and Margherita Rui (bottom center and right).
Rostagno explains, “The idea behind the Galleria is to make a creative space where people off the street as well as architects and interior designers can really see and experience craft in a new light. I felt that it was important to have a more conceptual area where we are trying to reinvigorate craft and showcase the many facets of workmanship and collaboration. The idea is to bring craft to life in the right context and in the right way.”
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