Honoring the best and the brightest for their contributions to the field of interior design, the Interior Design Department at FIT/SUNY announced this year's honoree of the 2009 Lawrence Israel Prize, Gaetano Pesce.
Artist, architect, designer, filmmaker urban planner and teacher Mr. Pesce shapes our world with a unique and critical voice. Well ensconced in any chronology of the profession, his work is cherished by every major design collection from MoMA to Tokyo. Though his voice may be heard globally, few decipher its entire message.
Embraced and courted by such corporate giants as Cassina, B&B Italia, Steelcase and Vitra he shatters their norms of production with his innovative mind. A pioneer in the use of resin, urethane and other modernist concoctions he's been able to mass-produce uniqueness. By redefining a process of production a single design will spin into a hoard of gems as unique as an individual's fingerprint.
A recognized titan in the field of furniture design, his work has often voiced a political or cultural position. In addition to embracing his Olympic achievements in furniture, we celebrate his interior and architectural provocations as embodied in his own house of Bahia, Brazil, the Organic Building of Osaka, his mischievous Children's House for Parc de la Villette, the playful Gallery Mourmons in Belgium, his notorious office for the New York advertising of company ChaitDay as well his as his numerous residential works and unbuilt edifices.
Though a provocateur and pundit, Gaetono remains rooted and informed by his Venetian context of origin. Artesian by nature he has spread the word both in his native Italian as well as his adopted French and English through his nomadic life that has weighed anchor in such global capitals as Tokyo, London, Paris, and New York.