Sebastian + Barquet
Last week, in the heat of the New York summer, I walked over to a big building at 11th Ave and 26th St. in Chelsea—where Martha Stewart has her offices—to visit Ramis Barquet at his renewed gallery space. Well, it's enormous and filled with all sorts of special pieces. Ramis Barquet has one of the most diverse minds and programs in the world of design including: art, design, jewelry, a framing company, educational program ideas . . . I mean when you leave the gallery after speaking to Ramis you feel like you've learnt a lot; I felt like I had just read a couple of books. In fact I ended up leaving with 3 catalogues on designers I'm interested in following up on: Uriarte, the Mexican Cermaic project; Solange Azagury-Partridge; and Julio Galan.
Ramis is so full of life and ideas it's very recharging and encouraging talking with him, and Tara DeWitt, who runs the gallery, is so helpful, passionate and knowledgable, I recommend getting a tour of their giant gallery with her . . . otherwise you may get lost.
These ceramics were all produced in mexico as part of a project called Uriarte. These pieces are Phenomenal. More to come on that as Ramis and I discuss how to bring the show back to life.
Julio Galan, a famous Mexican artist who sadly passed away, made this series of weird and wonderful sculptures. Wool and ceramic all intermingled . . . I've never seen anything like it. Amazing.