PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER, BLUE LOBBY: Curated by Helen Varola, September 17, 2015 – July 29, 2016
A retrospective by designer and Italian architect Antonio Pio Saracino examines the relationships among his product design, architecture and public art projects. Designs such as a maquette for his current Hero project sited nearby Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia in Florence, his new designs Sky Lounge and Mineral Table, information about his recent architectural and public art projects are presented in a staged setting that provides visitors with a powerful all-at-once aesthetic overview of how Saracino’s work integrates the disciplines of architecture, industrial design, and fine art. By employing new technologies, sustainable principles, and creative thinking, Saracino pursues innovative design on every scale and explores the relationship between the natural and man-made world.
For example, the Cervo Chair (Deer Chair), shaped out of thin strips of bent wood that recall the rib cage and antlers of a deer demonstrates Saracino’s organic design thinking. The Ray Sofa and Ray Chair are constructed with a cellular assemblage of ‘rays’ of closed-cell foam and are reminiscent of crystals formed in nature. The Blossom Chair’s organic shape with four petals adjusts to the human body dynamically with its elastic flexible seat and back that curl and spring back slightly, much like the petals of a flower opening and closing. Saracino’s recent large scale figurative
sculptures at Three Bryant Park, New York, Hero and Superhero also organically rhyme with Manhattan’s soaring architecture.