Pillow Talk

Reclining, holiday are behind artist Lukas or Fendi at Design Miami

Lukas Gschwandtner has long been L interested in women on chaises longues. 'I have always noticed depictions of reclining female figures, carved into building façades and friezes,' says the Austrian artist in a Zoom interview in early October. For years, he has meticulously documented such figures encountered in museum and gallery visits, drawn to the variety of postures, behaviours and gestures, and the points of contact between limbs and pillows. This collection of imagery became the inspiration for his Pillow Portraits series, first presented at Brussels' Maniera gallery in spring 2021. 'I started to directly translate those postures into wearable canvas sculptures,' he says.

'The moment the sculpture is worn, it immediately directs the body to impersonate the corresponding painting or artwork.