Gaetano Pesce

Italian, 1939–2024

Birth placeLa Spezia, Italy

Death placeNew York, New York, United States

BiographyGaetano Pesce, architect and industrial designer born in La Spezia, Italy, is renowned for his ability to conceive arresting forms and to manipulate and develop materials. His work is multidisciplinary in scope, visually and technically challenging, and visionary.

Pesce has been active in the international design community since the 1960s and has worked with companies ranging from C&B Italia to Cassina. He has also maintained his own studio-workshop over the past decades, creating limited production furniture. In 1995, after a successful career designing avant-garde furniture that was costly to obtain, Pesce created Fish Design, a series of affordable objects made from brightly colored resin. The collection ranges from vases and baskets to lighting and jewelry. Because they are individually made by hand, no two completed objects of the same design are exactly alike. Fish Design represents a new direction for the designer yet one that has echoes in his past work. Pesce has been using thermosetting plastics in his designs since the late 1960s so his choice of resin was a continuation of his exploration of the tactile and structural qualities of the material.

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