Michael Anastassiades

Michael Anastassiades is a Cypriot-born designer based in London. His activities include products, spatial interventions and experimental works, often going beyond the framework of specific fields of art. In his more than 20-year career, Anastassiades has created lighting, furniture and objects characterized by a poetic yet rigorous interpretation of technology, materials and functions. In his work, he draws inspiration from many sources, which he distills into pure, simple structures. From nature to archaic references to his native Cyprus, the history of modernism, very personal memories, art and everyday life - he transforms a rich set of diverse references into a timeless vocabulary of form and structure. He founded the London studio in 1994. He trained as a civil engineer at London's Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine and then obtained a Master of Science in Industrial Design from the Royal College of Art. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, MAK in Vienna, Crafts Council in London, FRAC Center in Orleans, France and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Anastassiades is a Royal Industrial Designer (RDI) of the Royal Society of Arts. He participates in educational programs at international institutions such as Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and ECAL in Lausanne. Michael Anastassiades' design philosophy is to preserve the inherent properties of the materials he uses. All products created in the studio are therefore handmade and have natural finishes, exposed to weather conditions, without any protective varnishes. Oxidation is seen as a process that only deepens the patina of an item, making it more beautiful over time.