Artempo was the first, in 2007, when we had the big work of El Anatsui on the façade outside. Was it Artempo, with the Anish Kapoor mirrored thing on the bottom floor? You know, I’ve been following you for so long that the first time I was able to completely immerse myself in your work was at the Palazzo Fortuny show in Venice-I was there for the opening. Actually, I’m on a construction site in Milan now, because I’m opening a store here. OWENS: Well, I understand that you have a place in Venice. We haven’t met yet, but we know each other, which is nice. This past June, shortly after Vervoordt’s completion of a magnificent penthouse apartment for Robert De Niro and Ira Drukier’s Greenwich Hotel, Owens spoke with the designer about living in the light and what it takes to make a village.ĪXEL VERVOORDT: Hello, Rick. Rick Owens, whose interiors in his Paris home are also the stuff of design legend, has long been an admirer of Vervoordt’s work. He is a world builder, so perhaps it is unsurprising that he should want to build his own world-which indeed he is doing, reconstructing an entire village on the outskirts of his native Antwerp. And although he has gathered together several monographs of his work (including Timeless Interiors in 2007, and in 2013, Living With Light) and, with the architect Tatsuro Miki, created the aesthetic treatise Wabi Inspirations (2011), the variety of his talents allow Vervoordt a holistic approach to his work that few others can even imitate, let alone match. After he’s done with it, a room, a house, or a work of art can often seem as though it has reached some ultimate, elemental completion, as if it could be no other way than how he has made it-perfect, effortless.īut beyond being just your favorite designer’s favorite designer-which, trust, he is-he is also among the most esteemed art dealers and curators working today. But the way he brings it all together and assembles an environment, creating a pleasing frisson through contrast, or diffusing an object by setting it in a complementary context, is what makes him unique. His breadth and depth of interest as a buyer and dealer-in rare and beautiful antiques, in modern art, and sumptuous furnishings and pottery-is staggering. The 67-year-old Belgian designer and curator is famous, first, for his collection of singularly opulent objects.
If there is a single, definitive Axel Vervoordt style, it is one of almost insouciant luxury. Each detail-from the materials used to the graceful placement of a well-chosen object-offers deep insight into the Vervoordt design approach and abiding principles for living and working well.I WANT TO GIVE A DIFFERENT DIMENSION TO WHAT I DO.
Portraits of each residence-including the Vervoordts' own homes in Venice and Belgium-feature sweeping vistas of the surrounding landscape and a tour through the interiors. These eighteen residences-from an urban New York penthouse or Moscow apartment to a waterfront estate in New England, and from a Tokyo dwelling to a Bordeaux wine château or a Wabi-Sabi farmhouse-reveal how art complements architecture and the elements of nature in an alchemy of Vervoordt expression. Seventeen homes demonstrate how Axel Vervoordt incorporates nature, art, and timeless interiors to create living spaces that encourage self-reflection, inspiration, and happiness.įor a half century, Axel Vervoordt's vision has been defined by a continual quest for harmony, beauty, and the creation of interior atmospheres that are rooted in the past, connected to the future, and imbued with today's comforts.
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