After completing her Master Degree in Contextual Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Léa Mestres moved home to Paris in 2017 and set up a studio/ workshop in Clichy, with her design friends, Thomas Ballouhey and Martin Laforet. It's here that she creates her 'happy furniture' - which even caught the eye of The New York Times earlier this year!
Léa's work begins as a drawing of her idea/ sculpture. She'll choose between a 3D drawing, which is necessary when Léa needs a realistic depiction of a piece that she will be building three-dimensionally; or a 2D drawing - which is a lot freer, and feels less serious, and more fun - this is her preferred method. However, the 3D drawing is critical when she is creating pieces that need to be built precisely, such as her Chrome Bench. Another feature of 3D drawing that Léa recognises as advantageous is that you can create a sculptural piece, that lives as a digital image, and it can live life as an image forever; without being materialised.
Léa's work is characterised through colour, form and texture, and Léa plays with our senses. Her bubbly, rounded sculptures look soft and approachable, but have been created with shiny, hard chrome; and her textured plaster light sculptures look tactile and friendly, but tower over you.
Léa is represented by Gallery Scene Ouverte in Paris. To purchase a piece get in touch with the gallery or message Léa directly on Instagram.