Dolce & Gabbana ‘GenD – Generation Designers’ supports young creatives at Milan Design Week

colourful glassware, part of Dolce & Gabbana GenD project at Milan Design Week 2023

Dolce & Gabbana is supporting young creatives at Salone del Mobile 2023 this year with an initiative that encourages designers to engage with traditional Italian manufacturing techniques. ‘GenD – Generation Designers’ unites ten designers from around the world in an exhibition curated by Federica Sala. 

In a move reminiscent of an artist residency project, Antonio Aricò, Sayar & Garibeh, Rio Kobayashi, Atelier Malak, Lucia Massari, Bradley Bowers, Ahryun Lee, Sara Ricciardi and Christ Wolston are invited to interpret classic Italian manufacturing methods. The companies that have created the works, and supplied materials, include Bottega Intreccio, Bubacco Brothers, Ceramica Bevilacqua, Foglizzo Leather, Fonderia Artistica Guastini, Forbicioni Studio, Fornace Mian, Fornace Mital, Giordano Viganò, Idea, Incalmi, Lucio Bubacco, Mary Moda di Maria Chiloiro, Mauro and Riccardo Solci, 6 a.m., Soheila Dilfanian, Tabù, TLP di Leonardo Pellegrini and Vito Guardo.

Dolce & Gabbana GenD – Generation Designers

Sayar Garibeh (Image credit: Dolce & Gabbana)

The results encompass a juxtaposition of materials and considered design cues, from Ahryun Lee’s sculptural candleholders in ceramic inspired by the artist’s time in Sicily to Atelier Malak’s furniture set reflecting the peace of a Japanese garden. Antonio Aricò is drawn to the joyfulness of a yellow hue, Bradley Bowers to the intricacies of traditional Venetian glasswork. For Chris Wolston, the unruly Pitahaya vines of the Colombian countryside become meditations on the temporality of beauty, while Lucia Massari distorts the traditional representation of animals for a more offbeat musing on aestheticism. 

Rio Kobayashi (Image credit: Dolce & Gabbana)

Shima Uma reinterprets the stripes of a zebra for a dresser which combines gold-plated glass, wood marquetry and embroidered silk fabric, while an eclectic embrace of materials also appeals to Sara Ricciardi, whose curtain made entirely of sculpted and coloured heartwood plays on domestic themes. For Sayar & Garibeh, furniture becomes imbued with a jewelled craftsmanship, with enamelling and bronze casting creating humorous and anthropomorphic pieces. 

The works will be exposed at the Dolce & Gabbana spaces in 23 Via Broggi in Milan. The exhibition will be open to the public from 18 to 23 April, from 10am to 7pm, subject to registration at dolcegabbana.com/home

Bradley Bowers (Image credit: Dolce & Gabbana)

Lucia Massari (Image credit: Dolce & Gabbana)