Les Ateliers Courbet is pleased to announce the first US exhibition of established Paris-based designer Emma Donnersberg and Chilean sculptor Abel Cárcamo opening at New York Master-Craftsmen’s gallery on April 4, 2023. The show will unveil the duo’s collaborative series of bronze sculpture tables ‘PENZAI’— hand-crafted in collaboration with esteemed art founder David de Gourcuff in Auvergne, France.

This collaborative edition results from Courbet's ongoing dialogue with Emma Donnersberg, and their shared commitment to the traditional crafts and the rarefied master artisans’ ateliers. Inspired by the Bonsai trees silhouettes and Japan's zen gardens, the resulting ‘Penzai’ series is a limited edition of sculptural, morpheus tables and lights that were hand-modeled and sculpted by Chilean-born artist Abel Cárcamo under Donnersberg’s creative direction. The works were later cast in bronze and hand-patinated by the bronzesmiths of Fonderie Fusions—David de Gourcuff’s esteemed art foundry based in Auvergne, France. The Penzai exhibition represents the culmination of a three-year collaboration.

With correlating artistic sensibilities, Cárcamo’s abstract and sensuous forms morphed under the creative direction of Donnersberg – whose personal work draws inspiration from the natural world and translates the sensuous lines of clouds, mushrooms, and Bonsai, amongst others, into functional and sculptural design pieces. The Penzai series showcases this vocabulary with three sculptural tables and two lamps all materialized from a sculptural design that was hand molded in plaster and worked with artisans, primarily in bronze, to complete the designs using the lost-wax technique.

Born in France, Donnersberg moved to the United States in 2000 to complete studies at Tulane University and Parson’s School of Design before opening her own design firm in 2008. Since then, she has built an interior design portfolio filled with luxurious homes across the globe and expanded into furniture design. Her cohesive design vocabulary has been translated into Editions Donnersberg: a comprehensive design catalog of pieces informed by artisanal dexterity and the designer’s ongoing collaboration with European craftsmen and ateliers.

The Emma Donnersberg exhibition will be on view at Les Ateliers Courbet, 134 10th Avenue, New York, April 4th, 2023, through June 10th, 2023.