Lukas Cober’s aesthetic expression chairs a spectacle at St.Vincents Gallery

Lukas Cober grew up in Aachen, a tripoint between Germany, Belgium, and Netherlands, where he experienced various forms of aesthetic expressions in design and fine arts comprising the cultural likes of the three countries. With a bank of knowledge from his former educative years Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design in design and art alongside a working experience with the iconic German designer Valentin Loellmann, he established his interdisciplinary practiceー Studio Cober. Marking another creative exhibition, St. Vincent’s Gallery in Antwerp is all set to platform the designs by Studio Cober from 29th September 2022 till 19th November 2022. The design exhibition is set to showcase the interdisciplinary design studio's idiosyncratic practice which combines craftsmanship with extensive knowledge of materials as acquired by the product designer. Among the designs on display are his previous work, new commissions, and designs he created especially for the occasion, such as wall sculptures, shelves, and lighting; along with some table designs created exclusively using fibreglass, wood and resin.

As an important observation from the expansive industrial designs one can capture the fluid essence of individual materials that Cober has used. He does not just embrace the textures of each material but also gives special attention to their characteristics. For instance, the movement that accompanies resin is evident in his ‘Wave’ table. Cober's inclination toward designing furniture pieces is evident in all of the products on display. Each of the pieces carries a certain sculptural finesse, architectural details, clean lines and very organic shapes.

As part of the exhibition, Lukas Cober builds further on his Kuro Collection—which initially marked his debut in furniture design in 2019. The collection interlaces graphical lines with freehand sculptural shapes, accentuating minimalism and purity of shapes and materials. The subtle curves of the Kuro tables offer a slate-light visual thickness that smoothly blends into the domed legs, all crafted in black brunt oak. The collective experience is such that the pieces from the furniture collection emanate naivety and the austereness of Shaker furniture—a set of furniture pieces that draw inspiration from the cultural values and adaptive personalities of the Shakers’ society. At first glance, the chair design, tables, consoles, and bookcases appear impressively straightforward; however, closer inspection reveals that the rounded edges and slightly exaggerated proportions give the furniture a startlingly eccentric appearance.

Just as the Kuro collection laid the foundation for Cober’s identity as an exceptional craftsman, furniture designer and artist, the ‘New Wave’ collection explores the experimentative side of this creative oeuvre. Illustrating the designer’s fascination with the oceans, Cober built the collection using resin and fibreglass cloth. While many designers have developed an inclination toward the flexible use of resin in creating furniture, it is mostly aided by using digital printing and casting moulds. Cober, on the other hand, hand-layers numerous layers of fibreglass with resin, and after the basic curation using casting moulds, enhances each piece by hand. The actual sinuous shape of every piece in the Wave collection is a result of Cober’s manual sculpturing. The result is a beautiful collection of tables, side tables, stool designs, consoles and dining tables that are perfectly translucent and in aesthetically appealing solid shades of green and black, among others.

Lukas Cober employs every material directly and intuitively, thereby making the whole process of creating a piece a continuous exploration of experimentation. Each design is fashioned and designed just for the user, offering each piece a distinct identity. Cober often tweaks and modifies specifics, learning as he moves along and creating fresh opportunities. Working with "collections", he is constantly able to apply the information he has learned about the material investigation to new situations.