The elaborate, otherworldly creations of artists such as Paola Pivi, To, Sachs, Jim Drain, and Bhakti Baxter have found other places to hang out besides a gallery or museum space. Instead, they can end up on your wrist, around your neck or ankles, or draping your body. This is made possible by the imaginative designs of Nektar De Stagni, a Miami-based fashion architect who specializes in jewelry, accessories and limited edition pieces made in direct collaboration with contemporary visual artists.
De Stagni's distinctively challenging, intellectually elevated work has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, ELLE, Vogue and The Financial Times. Opened in 2008, her former boutique on 38th Street (past neighbors include Locust Projects and Spinello Gallery) behaved more like an experimental conceptual space rather than a conventional boutique, giving artists increased flexibility in presenting their work in a complimentary environment. But De Stagni has taken her show on the road, presenting pop-up shops in the Hamptons and Grey Area (New York City). When her store reopens, she is expected to approach art and design with the same keen eye and sharp focus on handmade production that has earned her items spots in retailers such as The Webster Miami, Tomorrowland JAPAN, the MoMA Design Store and The Standard Hotels (New York/Miami).
Her dedication to the original designs and visions of practicing artists is remarkable, in that her items are not simply engineered to 'sell'. They are artifacts of the artist's imagination made accessible through fashion. On a small scale, De Stagni provides a tangible object that captures even the most wildly chaotic creative spirit. Having shared studio space with artists such as Bas, Baxter and Martin Oppel, it is clear that De Stagni learned very quickly how to fuse fashion and art with one never oppressing the other.
More information on Nektar De Stagni's work can be found at https://www.nektardestagni.com, https://www.nektardestagni.tumblr.com, and
https://twitter.com/!/NektarDeStagni
