Lucas Recchia
Brazilian designer Lucas Recchia often likens his home country’s distinct flavor of modernism to a famous father’s child who struggles to carve their own niche. “While I admire the legacy of Modernism,” the Forbes 30 Under 30 laureate explains, “I don’t understand why a country so rich in natural resources should limit itself to producing furniture that explores only wood.” In the designer’s inaugural solo exhibition at Bossa, called “Crafting the Future,” he’s revealing an array of experimental pieces that highlight the color and opacity of glass. “While Brazil has a tradition of producing crystal objects,” he continues, “no one had previously examined fusion and blown-glass techniques in the context of furniture design.”
The tables in his Mosai collection assemble small colored glass sheets like mosaics and fuse them together—an incredibly complex process that involves “calculating the exact distance each piece needs to be from the next and determining the precise temperature and duration required for them to ‘meet’ and create the illusion of fused edges,” Recchia explains. They’re similar in spirit to his Material Distortion series, which reinterprets stained glass traditions to fashion mirrors, patinated coffee tables, and centerpieces using melted pieces inserted into adjoined bronze or aluminum frames. Lately, Recchia has been fascinated by bronze and stone: His Eche collection pairs upholstered seating with textural bronze bases while his Zel table integrates metal forms shaped like suns and stars directly into molten glass. “My focus,” he continues, “has been to highlight the potential of other materials that are just as Brazilian.”
On view at Bossa (210 11th Avenue, Suite 403) until June 13.