Gaetano PESCE

Gaetano Pesce (La Spezia, 8 November 1939) is an Italian designer and architect. Without fear of experimenting with materials and colors, Pesce has worked for some of the most important Italian design companies, including Artemide, Vitra, Cassina, Bernini and B&B Italia. Pesce was born in La Spezia, in the province of Genoa, in 1939. He enrolled at the University of Venice in 1959 to obtain a degree in architecture and graduated in 1965. Pesce has pursued involvement with an avant-garde architectural collective that he called "Group N" and based his ideology on the lean aesthetic of the Bauhaus. Thanks to these various sources of inspiration, Pesce emerged from his studies ready to embrace the new materials of the time and the shapes that it was possible to create with these materials. Ranging from tiny decorative objects to towering architectural spaces, Pesce created designs that showed a profound contemplation of the modern era. From his iconic La Mamma chair (1969), which emulated the shape of a prehistoric votive figure on fertility, to his Organic Building in Osaka, Japan (1993), which included one of the most impressive hanging garden motifs of the time. Pesce has constantly strengthened the depth of his design skills by contemplating the role of art and design in our modern moment. With his favorite materials, which have become his trademark, resin, foam rubber, and plastic, Pesce has designed many products, most notably the Up-7 Piede, a large plastic living room chair in the shape of a human foot ( 1969); the Up5 armchair aka La Donna or La Mamma and the Up6 pouf for B&B Italia (1969); the Up1 armchair for C&B Italia (1971); the 357 Felti chair (1987) for Cassina; and the Broadway chair and table, produced by Pesce in Bernini, Italy (1990) in which his knowledge of resin and its behavior with the injection of color converge, creating surprising things bordering on art. /