Spectacular Greek island retreat mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with contemporary design

Clinging to a volcanic hilltop in Oia, the Katikies hotel on the island of Santorini is a maze of white washed cubist buildings like a small, self-contained Grecian town, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento.

THE design mixes traditional Cycladic architecture with a modernist aesthetic of clean-lined spaces free of decoration. Hewn from the rock face, some of the rooms are created from original 18^th Century cave houses and others have been recreated with high arched ceilings. The simple, white interiors are a low-key backdrop to the spectacular views across the phosphorescent blue of the Aegean and Caldera.

Open a nondescript doorway on the cliff-top in Oia and you see the hotel unfolding beneath you in a series of terraces down to the toy-like boats sailing on the sea 300 metres below.

Against the buildings’ white walls, bursts of color like the magenta of cascading bougainvillea or the vivid green of a tree are like pieces of natural art standing out in a contemporary gallery.

The terraces of the ship-like decks that overlook the sea lead to airy rooms designed with a mix of contemporary furniture, island antiques and floating muslins. The only contrast in colour and texture are the pale marble bathrooms and wood of the parquet floors.

The architecture of the interconnected caves and small domed buildings provides the theatrical set to present the main actors of the show in their best light: the vast horizon and the luminous Mediteranean sea and sky. 

For more information visit: http://www.katikieshotelsantorini.com/

New Design: The Yoko lamp by Anderssen and Voll for Foscarini

The ethereal Yoko lamps designed by Anderssen & Voll for Foscarini and exhibited for the first time in Milan

The Northern light was the inspiration for Norwegian designers Anderssen&Voll’s new lamp called Yoko launched in Milan this year by Italian company Foscarini, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THE design has a Scandinavian simplicity enhanced by the pale yet lucid hues of violet, orange and green. The lamp looks like a fragile bubble about to burst with it’s transparent outer skin resting lightly on a cylindrical light source below.

The designers Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll are based in Oslo and are known for their lean and modernist design. “The Yoko lamp is conceptual and ethereal, simple but at the same time sophisticated," says Anderssen. "We wanted to create spontaneous and immediate emotion. The design has a well-balanced, transparent form and fills the environment with a northern white light, creating a suffused yet vibrant atmosphere. "

The Yoko lamp’s design was based on a lengthy research of materials to form the curvature of the lamp’s silhouette. The complicated technology involved in making the lamp is disguised by its overall simplicity. The design was made based on the blow-moulding technique - not using glass but polymethilmethacrylate.

"In working with the Yoko we’re breaking with the archetypal form of a traditional lamp,'' says Voll. "Instead of a light source and shade held up by a structure, the transparent piece rests on the illuminated base. The lamp is made up of two intersecting shapes, balancing beauty and technology. Both the blow moulding technique and the use of polymethilmethacrylate have made it possible to create the lamp."

The lamp’s name Yoko was created through the assonance of two syllables: "We like the name because it reflects the dialogue between the two intersecting volumes that form the lamp," says Anderssen.

Originally founders of the design group Norway Says, Anderssen and Voll are now among the most prominent and successful Norwegian designers. Both have been named Norwegian and Scandinavian designers of the year in Norway and received international awards and recognition for their work with furniture, lighting and home accessories.

Click on video to see the two designers talking about the Yoko lamp in Norway:

Preparatory sketch for the Yoko lamp showing the idea of two intersecting spheres

The transparent lamps are imbued with subtle hues of violet, orange and green.

Award-winning Norwegian designers Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll who were inspired by a floating bubble to create the new Yoko lamps

"In working with the Yoko we’re breaking with the archetypal form of a traditional lamp,'' says Voll. "Instead of a light source and shade held up by a structure, the transparent piece rests on the illuminated base."

Emerging Artists Column: Painter Ginevra Marini in Rome

Italian artist Ginevra Marini with two new paintings at her studio in Rome

Ginevra Marini works fast with strong movements and her brushes seem to attack the canvas when she paints. Andreas Romagnoli & Jeanne-Marie Cilento ask the young artist about her life and work in Rome

WHEN she was a child Marini already had a passion for art. She began studying painting at eleven years old, attending artist Alberto Parres' courses at the La Porta Blu art school in Rome between 2002 and 2012. She went on to study painting at Milan’s renowned Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. Perhaps because Marini started painting so early, her style is already mature and very much her own.

Ginevra Marini paints figures, mostly the female form and they have an expressive power reminiscent of Matisse’s early work. She likes to create a balance between primary colours and wide monotone spaces. The ambiguous, dream-like faces that fill her work resonate on a deep level. Her black and white oil sketches are endowed with a primal energy and embody the emotional paths she is exploring in the quest for identity.

Mirrors are often found in Marini’s paintings of women and represent a projection of both the soul and the senses. She uses a limited palette of blue, red and yellow that contrast with looming dark shadowy figures in grey and black. 

Today, Marini lives and works in Rome and is preparing her first solo exhibition.

1.What are you currently working on?

My creative process begins with photos I take myself or find in books or on the Internet. Usually I work on the female body and it's reflection in mirrors or water. I then elaborate the photos into sketches and/or paintings. I use different media ~ in the past I have concentrated on acrylics which I make myself to achieve the texture I need, such as raw pigments mixed with primal. Now I'm now approaching oil bars which are like thick crayons. I use both materials to create my womanly figures whether by painting with brushes using acrylic or using my fingers with the oil bar.

I've been obsessed with the theme of women and mirrors for quite a while now and I'm currently immersing myself in all that is "woman". My creative process, apart from the subjects, is very instinctive. I work incessantly until I find that the work makes sense to me. I try not to over think the process and let my hand lead me.

2. What inspires you for your creative work now?

There are many artists who inspire me. For the use of space and composition I look to photographers such as Nan Goldin and Francesca Woodman. For the use of colour, I attentively study the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, William de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Gerhard Richter. I admire both Motherwell and Franz Kline too.

3. Can you describe the experience, person or training that has had the greatest impact on your painting career?

I owe everything I know about painting to Alberto Parres. He is not only a pretty darn good painter but also an amazing teacher. I used to go painting at his art school twice a week from the age of eleven. Alberto made me not only the artist but the person that I am now. He is the harshest critic of my work and he is the only critic I listen to. I can rely on what he tells me about my work no matter what.

4. What do you find the most challenging aspect of your work technically? 

I find myself wanting to try many different mediums other than painting such as engraving, photography and more but I am often not keen on the whole slow process of printing or the subtle changes of light while I take a photo. I'd love to master more and more techniques. I'm often stubborn when approaching new ways to make my art but I'd like to expand my capabilities. Also, I know that sometimes my drawing skills are weak and I have to constantly exercise them.

            

5. Where do you see yourself in 10 years as an artist? 

I would like to give painting my full attention and exhibit my work. But foremost I feel that I still don't grasp fully what I want to say or what I am doing with my work, so I'd be pleased if in 10 years I will be able to understand more of what my art is all about. I'd like to meet more and more artists that share my interests and create a space in which to have a dialogue with them to work and develop our ideas together.

Click on photographs for full-screen slideshow

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2013 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 oil bar 21x30cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2012 acrylic 150x120cm

Untitled 2013 acrylic 150x120cm

 Untitled 2013 oil stick 21x30cm

Untitled 2013 oil stick 21x30cm

Photo Essay: Rome and the Colosseo Quadrato

A great marble horse rear up in front of the EUR's Palazzo della Civilta designed by Giovanni Guerrini, Mario Romano and Ernesto Lapadula

For Romans the EUR district represents the world of business and its wide, modern spaces are ringed by monumental buildings from the Fascist era and Italy's post-war boom, write Andreas Romagnoli and Jeanne-Marie Cilento. Photography by Andreas Romagnoli

THE broad, axial streets and austere neo-classical architecture of the EUR were originally inspired by Roman Imperial town planning and Italian Rationalist design but using traditional materials such as limestone and marble. The most iconic building is the Palazzo della Civiltà also known as the Colosseo Quadrato. Often neglected by Romans since it is linked with Fascist architecture, the building has engendered new interest from designers and architects all over the world. 

The 'Square Colosseum' has a purity of style from every angle and was designed by Italian architects Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto Lapadula and Mario Romano and built between 1938-1943. Inspired by the Colosseum, the building has a series of arcaded loggias of nine arches in six rows. The building is entirely clad in travertine marble ~ a characteristic of buildings in the EUR ~ and rises up to six levels above a podium. At the four corners of the podium are four equestrian sculptural representing the Dioscuri, the two mythical Greek heroes. At the base of the building are 28 statues each illustrating industries and trades.

Today, the building sits at the heart of this residential and business district in Rome located south of the city centre. The letters EUR stand for Esposizione Universale Roma and the site was first chosen for the 1942 World Fair. Benito Mussolini planned the exhibition to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the March on Rome and the beginning of the Fascist regime. The urban plan also directed expansion of the city towards the sea and was to be a new city centre for Rome

The area of the Tre Fontane was chosen and made official on December 15, 1936. The grandeur and architecture of the buildings were planned to hark back to the glories of the ancient Roman Empire. By January 1936, work on the 400 hectare zone was entrusted to five Italian architects including designing pavilions and permanent buildings.

But the World Fair did not take place due to the Second World War and the original project was left incomplete when the works had to stop in 1942. After the war, the EUR was planned as a business district out of the city centre. The idea was avant-guarde for its time as other major developments such as London’s Docklands and La Défense in Paris were not planned until decades later. 

During the 1950s and 1960s the unfinished Fascist-era buildings were completed and others were built in contemporary styles as offices and government buildings set in extensive gardens and parks. The EUR's initial urban plan was completed in time for Rome’s 1960 Olympics including the Palazzo dello Sport designed by Nervi and Piacentini. 

The latest iconic and controversial piece of architecture to be constructed in the EUR is the new congress centre designed by Roman architect Massimiliano Fuksas. Nicknamed the 'Cloud' because of the amorphous shape inside, the building was begun in 1998 and is planned to be completed later this year. Thirty metres high, the building's exterior is translucent and has simple, linear lines that pay tribute to the 1930s rationalist architecture that characterize the EUR. 

Inside the 'cloud' is supported by a thick network of steel cables and suspended between the floor and the ceiling of the main conference hall. When the cloud is lit up the building seems to vibrate. Officially called the Nuovo Centro Congressi, it will contain an auditorium, conference and congress halls,  restaurants and a five-star hotel. The whole complex is designed with energy-saving materials and using renewable sources for heating and air conditioning.

However, the congress centre was planned at the height of the economic boom to provide Rome with its first large, high-quality congress and conference centre to attract business, some of it away from Milan. This year, the new complex will be launched into a completely different economic climate when other business exhibition centres are having difficulty filling their calendars.

The 'Cloud' designed by Massimiliano Fuksas as an auditorium and new congress centre in the EUR that is due to be completed this year.

One of the four marble sculptural groups that stand on the four corners of the building's podium

The striking building has been used in many Italian and international films and recently was the setting for Girogio Armani's Rome fashion show.

Looking up to the Colosseo Quadrato built from travertine marble between 1938-1943.

The pure symmetry of the building can be seen from the equidistant rows of nine arches that form the facade of each the four sides.

The play of light under the loggia of the Palazzo della Civilta in Rome.

The elegant Modernism of  Palazzo ENI or Palazzo del Vetro designed and built in 1962 in the EUR 

The dome of the basilica of St Peter and St Paul in the EUR.

Gleaming lights reflected on the lake at the centre of the EUR district

A contemporary glass tower that continues the EUR's expansion as a business and commercial hub in Rome.

Palazzo dei Congressi designed by Adalberto Libera in the Rationalist style in 1938 but not completed until 1954 after the war.

Looking towards the monumental square form of the Palazzo della Civilta from Via Cristoforo Colombo

Soaring columns of the Museo della Civilta Roman that are like a Roman modernist temple 

The crisp lines and austere symmetry of the EUR's urban plan.

10 Questions Column: Canadian Painter Jen Mann

Painter Jen Mann at her studio in front of her painting Bubblegum exhibited at her show at Neubacher Shor Contemporary in March 2013

Exciting young Canadian artist Jen Mann's latest figurative paintings in vivid, saturated colour illuminated her new solo show Strange Beauties. Andreas Romagnoli and Jeanne-Marie Cilento asked her 10 questions about her life and work

LIVING in Mississauga on the shores of Lake Ontario just out of Toronto, Jen Mann attended Canada's largest and oldest artistic educational institution, the Ontario College of Art and Design. She earned her BFA in print-making from the university in 2009. However, painting has been her focus since she finished her degree and she has already created a substantial body of work.

For her latest show, Mann took digital photographic off-cuts to inspire her new paintings. Her photorealist technique concretizes movement into a painterly amber, forever arrested mid-motion. Images deleted or thrown away when people are caught unaware or in awkward poses, she uses as the basis for paintings. She sees the beauty in these abstracted, odd pictures captured momentarily by the camera. By painting them in brilliant, surreal hues she heightens simultaneously the sense of the real and unreal.

Mann says the main focus of her creative work is exploring the subconscious and ideas of perceived beauty and identity. "Beauty on the fringes” was the theme for the large-scale oil and acrylic paintings. "In my newest series of works I challenge limitations to acceptable beauty," the painter says. "Limitations are death to creativity. The idea of being wrong is also a sort of death. The idea of wrong is something that intrigues me, things that don’t belong, colours that don’t quite fit together. The idea that something can be wrong makes me want to see what kind of magic lies behind the world of 'no' 'bad' and 'mistake'."

1. What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a series that looks at painting through digital forms of abstraction, multiple exposures and pixelations.

2. What inpires you for your creative work now?

I am inspired by people, relationships, identity and existentialism. 

3. How did you choose painting as your creative metier?

Sometimes things just work out... Painting and I just work together... It was never a struggle or a fight to get along. It just always felt right.

4. Can you describe the experience, person or training that has had the greatest impact on your painting and design career?

I think my parents have had the greatest impact on my artistic career. They were very supportive from a young age. I don't think I would be where I am without that support and guidance. 

5. What do you find the most challenging aspect of your work technically?

Patience...Slowing things down to focus on the details

6. Where do you like to draw or create your initial paintings?

I have a studio where I paint. It is all white ~ so that there are no distractions. 

7. Do you have a set schedule of working creatively everyday or is the process more fluid?

I don't have a schedule in a regular sense. I work intensely when I am inspired and feeling creative. But there are many days that I just sort of store up energy and gather inspiration.

8. What part of painting gives you the most happiness and do you find your creative process is more rational or instinctive?

The painting part is very rational... The mock-up part is instinctive and fluid. I create my images in photoshop first, working with photos taken in my studio. When I work with the photos I don't have a plan for anything before I start. I just play around to find what comes to the surface. When I get down to painting, there are flourishes exaggerations but it is more rational. I like both parts ~ it's all very fun.

9. Is there a town or place in the world you consider inspiring?

Well I haven't been to many places. I find people more inspiring than places... So I guess really old places where there is lots of history, where people from many generations have lived and died... I find those places fascinating.

10. In our digital age what does painting give us as an art form and how do you define contemporary art?

Painting gives a certain type of authority in art. It is also very tactile ~ there is still an element of human touch involved. I think that authenticity is nice in our digital age. Contemporary art is everything and it is nothing... It's really all who is observing it and from what vantage point.

For more information about Jen Mann's work contact Neubacher Shor Contemporary gallery in Toronto: http://neubachershor.com 

Sway 2013 oil on canvas 50x50 inches

The artist at work on her new paintings that explore digital abstraction and pixelation.

Deep Blue Sea 2013 acrylic on canvas 48x60 inches

Cotton Candy 2013 acrylic on canvas 48x46 inches

Bubblegum 2012 acrylic on canvas 60x72 inches

Jen Mann working closely on a new large-scale figurative painting. 

Strange Beauties ~ Jen Mann's new solo show that was held at Toronto's  Neubacher Shor Contemporary in March 2013.