Born in France, interior designer and design publisher Emma Donnersberg left Europe and moved to the United States in 2000 to complete her Bachelor of Arts degree at Tulane University, New Orleans. She subsequently graduated from Parson’s School of Design in New York with a focus on interior design. With offices in Paris and New York City, Donnersberg has built an international clientele, and has completed numerous, acclaimed interior design projects in both Europe and North America.
Donnersberg’s cohesive design vocabulary translates in her Editions Donnersberg; a comprehensive design catalogue of pieces informed by artisanal dexterity and the designer’s ongoing collaboration with artists and artisans across Europe, such as the ‘Cèpes’ series of unique ceramic stools created in collaboration with master-ceramicist Karen Swami, or Donnersberg’s long-standing collaboration with architect/designer Michel Amar. For Donnersberg’s most recent work with Amar – the ‘Canyon’ editions of stone tables - Courbet introduced the duo to the stone carvers of Ateliers Saint-Jacques. Today, the Donnersberg Editions represents a comprehensive body of work inspired by Europe’s ongoing craftsmanship traditions and the artist’s ongoing collaborations with revered artisans across Europe.
Their shared commitment to master-craftsmanship ethos and collaborative approach have brought Donnersberg and Ateliers Courbet founder Melanie Courbet together. A longstanding friend and collaborator of the gallery, Donnersberg is who brought Michel Amar’s editions to Ateliers Courbet and more recently initiated the collaboration between Courbet and master-ceramicist Karen Swami. Courbet and Donnersberg’s ongoing dialogue has resulted in the latest Donnersberg Editions’ series ‘Penzai’; a limited edition of sculptural, morpheus tables and lights that were hand-modeled and sculpted by Chilean artist Abel Carcamo under Donnersberg’s creative direction, and later cast in bronze and hand-patinated by the bronzesmiths of Fonderie Fusion — David de Gourcuff’s esteemed art foundry based in Auvergne, France.
French ceramicist Karen Swami's work has garnered the steady appreciation of international critics and collectors for its elegant simplicity and textured skins. Her nom d’artiste “Swami” is a phonetic adaptation of her maiden name, Souhami, and refers to a spiritual or religious teacher in Sanskrit. As for the inspirations behind her body of work, they range from ancient Egyptian Nagada vases to Japanese ceramic traditions to the work of her contemporary peers including Alev Ebüzziya Siesbye and Magdalene Odundo among others.
Working between Paris and Brittany, Swami has been drawn to the tactile and visual experience of clay since her early childhood. It was not until 2009 that she chose to dedicate her life to mastering ceramic techniques. In 2010 Swami received her certificate of professional competence in pottery. As she pursues her study of the material through ongoing experimentations at her studio, the artist has since developed an extensive body of work involving various time-honored techniques picked up from ceramic traditions from around the world. Swami embraces the beautiful and poetic imperfections resulting from controlled incidents and weaknesses inherent to the materials. Her work is deeply informed by the natural characteristics of the Earth; from the surface down to its deeper stratus. Swami mimics the parched, cracked and fractured textures found in nature, enabling and emphasizing injured, layered surfaces.
The particularity of her work results from the convergence of time-honored techniques from different parts of the world; the cobalt blue or celadon-green glazes reveal deep layers of nuanced colors and the simple shapes of her works are reminiscent of Asian and Hellenistic ceramics dating back to the ancient dynasties. To create her unique finish, Swami burnishes each piece with an agate stone, they are then bisque-fired, smoked, waxed, then re-worked often with Urushi lacquer and pure gold in the traditional Japanese Kintsugi technique.
