Soft Baroque

Nicholas Gardner (Australia) and Saša Štucin (Slovenia) of Soft Baroque work simultaneously in object design and art. Their practice focuses on creating work with conflicting functions and imagery, without abandoning beauty or consumer logic. They are keen to blur the boundaries between acceptable furniture typologies and conceptual representative objects.

Making plays a big role in their practice. They are designers and manufacturers of their objects. Their interest in various materials results in a diverse body of work. The refined, simplified forms of their works reflect principles of mid-century design, but the pieces also veer toward conceptual territory by evoking the malleability of how objects are seen and mediated today. Traditionally a craftsman’s practice would be in proximity to the raw material used to fabricate objects. In the same fashion Soft Baroque produces work in the context of the metropolitan environment: processed materials manufactured for the domestic interiors are manipulated to unconventional ends. These new raw materials are converted into objects that still possess an echo from their intended use.

So far they’ve been showing work at the V&A, Christie’s and Somerset House in London, Swiss Institute, Friedman Benda and Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York, A Palazzo Gallery in Brescia, Etage Projects in Copenhagen, Depot Basel in Basel, Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Collective Design in New York, Nomad in Monaco and St. Moritz and Design Miami in Basel and Miami fairs and at Milan, London, New York, Stockholm and Dubai Design Week.