When Liverpool based large format wallpaper company Murals Wallpaper sent a press release for their latest collection Industrial Luxe to Design daily a week or so ago there was an immediate connection to the work of Korean born artist Chung Eun Mo and the recent graphic wallpaper designs of Elisa Ossino. The colours used in the designs are a pleasingly dirty with a linoleum style marbling, while the shapes are unrelentingly geometric but also extremely inviting.
'Nico' wall mural from Murals Wallpaper.
Milan based stylist Elisa Ossino has been styling showrooms and photography for stone specialist Salvatori for a number of years but she has recently expanded her involvement with the company into special installations and products. At the recent Salone del Mobile in Milan she created the Salvatori apartment within a 200 year old apartment on Via Solferino in the Brera district. Picking up on the colours and textures of the old terrazzo floor, Ossino designed her own marble marquetry artworks (with the help of the skilled craftspeople at Salvatori). The large artworks are made using wafer thin slivers of exotic marbles.
A scene from the Salvatori apartment by Elisa Ossino that was on view during Salone del Mobile 2017. The artwork is made from marble cut with immense precision by Salvatori.
Ossino has designed a number of wallpapers with a similar obsession with geometric/architectural forms for Italian brand Texturae who in launched in 2016. The Calabrian founders of Texturae, Daniele Morabito and Dario Pulitanò, have brought together an innovative group of artists, graphic artists and designers and combined this with what they call 'avant-garde technology' to create a highly desirable combination of art in wallpaper form. Below left is Ossino's ARCADE A design and on the right is Ossino's ARCADE B - both from the brand's recent Weft collection.
Chung Eun Mo was born in Seoul Korea but she has been living in Torre Orsina in Umbria since 1987. She received a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in New York in 1980 and has been refining her painterly geometric style consistently ever since. In 2016 she gained a great deal of new admirers after Dutch designers Scholten & Baijings used a large number of her artworks in an installation in Milan for Japanese furniture brand Karimoku New Standard. The installation intended to create a dialogue between the artworks on the walls and the furniture in the room through the linking of shapes and colours. In 2017 her work was also on display at Assab One, an exhibition in the 5Vie district during the Milan Design Fair.
The 2016 Karimoku New Standard installation designed by Scholten & Baijings with numerous works by Chung Eun Mo. The installation was shown in the 5Vie district as part of Milan Design Week. Photography by Takumi Ota.
Chung Eun Mo's work is architectural in many ways - defining space between forms that while extremely two dimensional become solid forms. At times these solid objects present what appears to be their own shadows - as in the work below right. Other works almost illustrate furniture objects within a room - which is what first drew the creative director of Karimoku New Standard, David Glaettli to her work for the 2016 installation in Milan.
“In some way, the canvases of Eun Mo, that immediately evoke habitable constructions, have, at the same time, something of those more humble constructions that constitute furniture. Therefore, in the same way that Erik Satie dreamt a ‘musique d’ameublement’, perhaps Eun Mo has uncovered an unexpected and intriguing ‘musique d’ameublement’. Although there is a point of humour in both cases, above all there exists the solemn proclamation that art has as an inescapable, most urgent and imperative task: To make the world habitable.”
Angel Gonzalez - Art Critic
The 2016 Karimoku New Standard installation with works by Chung Eun Mo. Photography by Takumi Ota.
The qualities mentioned by Angel Gonzalez mean that Chung Eun Mo's work translates well into designed products such as rugs and wallpapers. Chung Eun Mo has created several carpets for Memphis Milano and more recently wallpapers for Texturae.
'Stage' - one of Chung Eun Mo's wallpaper designs from the Weft collection for new Italian wallpaper company Texturae.
The idea behind Liverpool's Murals Wallpaper is that customers can specify specific wall sizes and the chosen mural design is scaled and digitally printed to fit. While the new collection Industrial Luxe is highly graphic, the company has a large range of designs that run from figurative line drawings on white backgrounds to much more flamboyant types. The Industrial Luxe revival range takes inspiration from seasonal palettes of AW17 and juxtaposes it with the retro glamour of the 1970s era with design names such as Sedgwick and Cardin.
Murals Wallpaper design 'Sedgwick'.
'Margaux' design by Murals Wallpaper.
The 'Carerra' design from Murals Wallpaper.
'Cardin' by Murals Wallpaper.
While the designs are fabulously graphic as pure designs as seen in the room shots below, they translate beautifully to large scale murals that cover entire walls. The design 'Nico' is shown on the left and 'Mirielles' on the right.
The murals from the Industrial Luxe collection by Murals Wallpaper start at $35 per sqm for Australian customers and £30 pounds per sqm for those from the UK. For more information on paper stock, size and shipping go to the their website here.
For a more comprehensive look at the work of Chung Eun Mo go to her website here.
Check out the wonderful world of Elisa Ossino here but also go to the Texturae wallpaper website here. Texturae has commissioned both Chung Eun Mo and Elisa Ossino to contribute designs to their Weft collection..