A MAGIC CARPET RIDE

An ancient industry in need of freshening up, FORT STREET STUDIO arrived with the use of technology and painterly designs to change the carpet world

- SARA SIGUION-REYNA

Ask anyone in the know about interior design and carpets and the first name on their mouth will be Fort Street Studio. The company, known for its luxurious, hand-knotted carpets is the brainchild of artists Brad Davis and Janis Provisor and is the leading name in carpets.

The story of Fort Street Studio started in 1989, when Crown Point Press, a fine-art etching press based in San Francisco invited the artists to China to make prints in the traditional Chinese Watercolor Woodblock technique. Always interested in Chinese art but never able to visit, Davis and Provisor jumped at the opportunity.

In three weeks, they went to Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Huang Shan. “While in Hangzhou, we had a sense that we would return one day to spend more time there, and in 1993/94 the opportunity arose for us to do so,” says Provisor. “We decided to take a year’s adventure away from NYC, grabbed our young son who had just turned 6, and away we went to Hangzhou and Hong Kong.” In the book A Tale of Warp and Weft : Fort Street Studio, Davis says everyone thought they were crazy, because at that point he and Provisor had significant art careers, showing in the United States and Europe.

Due to the 1993 recession, the art world in the US had turned to conservatism, and it was the perfect time for an adventure. China, meanwhile, was beginning to open up. “One felt that you could do and make almost anything,” says Provisor. While neither of them can point to any specific influence, Provisor believes there was no doubt that the experience of living there; meeting people, and encountering daily life had its impact. “Artists are like sponges, soaking in what they see, smell, understand, and translating all this stimulation into their work,” she says.