Olivier Gagnère

Ceramist, glassmaker, furniture designer, Olivier Gagnère is an alchemist of fire and ice.

He appeared on the French design scene in the 1980s. Through contact with Ettore Sottsass's Memphis group in Milan, he developed his spirit of fantasy, great formal freedom and a certain humor. In Japan, he immersed himself in the ancestral expertise of porcelain artisans in the workshops of Arita, on the island of Kyushu.

His first furniture was designed for Artelano and the Néotù gallery by Pierre Staudenmeyer. He collaborated with the Maeght gallery to create pieces in Murano glass and with the Édition Limitée gallery to work with earthenware. The development of the Marly café, at the Louvre, in 1994, brought him great notoriety which led to numerous associations, notably with Saint-Louis, Bernardaud, En Attendant les Barbares…

Comfortable with all materials, Olivier Gagnère works with porcelain as well as iron, crystal, wood, leather and bronze. He combines simple and timeless shapes with controlled volumes, available in bright, distinct colors. Imbued with the most classic traditions, he gives each of his objects a gesture, a twist, which marks its era.

• 23 x 30.5 cm
• 256 pages
• 650 illustrations
• Hardcover
• French / English
• ISBN: 978-2-9155-42738

Michèle Champenois est journaliste, critique d’architecture et de design. Au Monde, dès les années 1980, puis au Monde 2, le magazine, jusqu’en 2009, elle a publié de nombreux portraits et reportages et couvert l’actualité de ces domaines.

Elle a collaboré à d’autres publications comme L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui et à des émissions sur France-Culture. Elle tient une chronique mensuelle à la radio, sur Fréquence Protestante : « De l’art de construire des villes à celui de concevoir les objets qui nous entourent ». Elle est l’auteur d’Andrée Putman, ambassadrice du style (Skira Flammarion, 2010) et de Marc Held, 50 ans de design (Éditions Norma, 2014).