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enrico marone cinzano: obsessed by nature
Italian artist Enrico Marone Cinzano opens at Friedman Benda in New York with his solo show Obsessed By Nature. As the title suggests, the diverse works on view are informed by the artist’s obsession with the beauty and logic of the natural world. Marone Cinzano describes his practice as an exploration of contrasts, where discarded materials and industrial remnants are transformed into sculptural objects that evoke both organic fluidity and structural precision. ‘What was becomes something else,’ he tells designboom in an interview ahead of the show’s opening, describing his process of reimagining overlooked materials into timeless functional objects. Obsessed By Nature will be on view at Friedman Benda from November 14th — December 14th, 2024.
Enrico Marone Cinzano, portrait | all images courtesy Friedman Benda
discarded materials become functional art
Enrico Marone Cinzano’s works on view at Friedman Benda’s New York gallery are informed by his fascination with contrast. In the exhibition, materials such as African ebony, shark skin from the food industry, and World War II tank prisms find new life in unexpected forms. ‘I love contrast,’ he says. ‘Using a super rough, natural surface and then contrasting it with shiny or matte materials has always fascinated me.’ This ethos extends to the collection’s diverse origins, from Indian junkyards to military discharges in Italy, where he uncovers forgotten elements to be repurposed. For the artist, this process is not about sustainability as a trend but about respecting the inherent circularity of nature. ‘Nature has all the answers,’ he asserts, underscoring the foundation of his practice.
While he was never formally trained, he credits his Italian heritage and time spent in Tuscany for his sensitivity to aesthetics. ‘There’s a reason the Renaissance happened there,’ he reflects, noting the region’s unmatched light and colors. His work embraces nature’s imperfections, blending them with human craftsmanship to create objects that challenge traditional design boundaries. Despite his hard-edged creations, the designer hints at a softer direction for the future. ‘Seeing my work together, I realize it’s quite hard. I think it’s time to go fluffy,’ he muses, imagining the next evolution of his artistic narrative. Read the full interview with Enrico Marone Cinzano below!
Enrico Marone Cinzano, Rosa, 2021
a dialogue with Enrico Marone Cinzano
designboom (DB): This is your first solo show with Friedman Benda. Might you give us a bit of context about your background and your work?
Enrico Marone Cinzano (EMC): I’m from Italy, although I left when I was very young. Specifically, I spent a lot of time in Tuscany. There’s an innate sense of aesthetics there, especially with light and colors, because we have amazing colors. There’s a good reason why the Renaissance was there, not somewhere else. I’m born in Torino, which is a Baroque city, and extremely driven by the court, because the king was living there. So the whole city is very designed. I always liked aesthetics. I’m untrained, unschooled, and unknown. This gives me an advantage of some sort, because there’s no provenance to what I do.
Enrico Marone Cinzano, Marmo, 2023
EMC continued: I’m obsessed by nature and materials. In the case of these two lamps, it was the original stones, which were discarded stones, that really fascinated me. In case of the green ‘Verde’ lamp, it was this log that I found in India that had an incredible patina. In the case of the four ‘Piego’ chairs, it was finding these huge blocks of materials that have been left over from previous productions. I also studied the properties of the stones. Some stones are cooling, some are soothing, some are grounding. In the case of the two ‘Marmo’ night tables, they are made with shark skin left over from the food industry. The ebony is African ebony that was left over from a production at a previous job.
Enrico Marone Cinzano, Basculante, 2024
DB: You’ve also integrated headlamps into some of these works?
EMC: The head lamps come from a junkyard in India. The caps for the lights on the ‘Bianca’ lamp are actually resistors for high tension wiring. For the ‘Rosa Tank Lamp,’ I used prisms from World War Two tanks, which were used to see the enemy from inside the tank. I think that there’s so much talk about war right now, so I decided, ‘screw it, let’s do it pink.’ I love contrast. Contrast has always been something that I was fascinated by. I love the idea of using a super rough, natural surface and then contrasting it with shiny or matte materials.
The design process is actually quite easy for me. I don’t design, I find something and I build on it. I find something that I like, and then I generally purchase it and put it away. Then maybe six months or a year later, I revisit it and realize what I want to build with it.
Enrico Marone Cinzano, Verde, 2024
DB: You must have a lot of objects and materials stored!
EMC: I have a crazy storage room, with crazy materials — things that people just leave in a junkyard. Some elements come from Italy in a junkyard near Cecina, I found some from a military discharge in Torino. Some are from India. I am also working on a piece that’s made of military radios which I got on eBay. There are many things that are just discarded which are super cool.
Maybe most of my work is not very feminine, but this piece, ‘Basculante,’ is a mechanism for a nursing chair made with ball bearings from trucks contrasted with glass. This was a nightmare to engineer. Like I said, I’m not schooled and I’m not trained. Unlike other people, I don’t think what can be done. I imagine what I want to see, and that becomes a nightmare for the people that work for me. I told them I want the base to be completely glass. I want to see the mechanism, the transparency. On top is a Ferrari chair I found in a junkyard contrasting with fossilized wood.