Ateliers Courbet is pleased to announce ELEMENTS, an exhibition unveiling Paris-based artist and designer Mattia Bonetti’s latest rug series, hand-crafted by the Nepalese master-weavers of DIURNE — the renowned catalog of artists’ rugs incepted by French artist Marcel Zelmanovitch in the late 20th century. Presented in collaboration with Kasmin Gallery, the exhibition will open on September 24th, 2024, at Ateliers Courbet (134 Tenth Ave., NY, NY 10011). This marks the artist’s first exhibition at New York’s master craftsmen’s gallery, featuring his two-dimensional woven expressions in dialogue with his iconic sculptural bronze and upholstery pieces.

This latest artist rug collaboration brings the prolific designer back to his original mediums of expressions as Bonetti’s practice burgeoned during his textile design studies at the Centro Scolastico per l’Industria Artistica in Lugano. In 1973, the young graduate moved to Paris, where he honed his textile design skills before venturing into furniture design in 1979. In the forefront of Paris 1980s avant-garde design movement, Bonetti’s independent spirit broke the molds of his time as he developed a then singular type of vocabulary with his functional sculptures and highly imaginative forms. His work is imbued with craftsmanship traditions, artistic references and cultural heritage, emphasizing his conceptual interest over the pure functionality. With his deeply artistic approach, Bonetti’s creative process starts with freehand sketches on paper, in traditional, analog manners. These initial drawings evolve and morph into tangible sculptural pieces, informed by the artisans’ hands and the medium of expression.

Working closely with the same ateliers for over fifty years, Bonetti and his team of master artisans use time honored techniques and high quality materials to create contemporary works of art with timeless elegance. Similarly, his collaboration with the master-weavers of Diurne is a contemporary and playful tribute to the Nepalese rug weaving tradition. True to Bonetti’s distinct design vocabulary, his rug series features unique shapes, and free lyrical abstractions that may occasionally extend beyond the conventional frame.

In the same spirit, French painter Marcel Zelmanovitch conceived Diurne in 1982 in pursuit of an alternative canvas to transmute his paintings into woven narratives, elevating the rug from its mere functionality. The artist had found a new passion. Living and working between Paris and Nepal near his team of master weavers, Zelmanovitch is now fully supporting their workshop and community and allows each of them to carry on the time-honored weaving techniques and rug traditions of Nepal. Today, Zelmanovitch invites artists and designer friends to use his palette of woven canvases, Diurne, for their personal work and expressions. His encounter with Bonetti has birthed a collection that conveys the two artists’ free spirit and unwavering commitment to the rarefied master craftsmanship of the world. Each rug is meticulously hand-knotted and hand-woven by the Nepalese weavers of Diurne.

Bonetti conceived his rug series as paintings, sketching free forms on paper. Each original drawing and its digital render was then sent to Diurne’s rug studio in Nepal. The composition transmuted from the artist’s hands, on paper, to those of the weavers at the looms, where they painstakingly replicated the intricate designs, knot by knot.