Mejore x Nazareno/Lichauco
Mejore collaborated with design duo Rita Nazareno and Gabriel Lichauco for a series of small capsule collections through CITEM/ManilaFAME’s Product Development Program. We are very proud to feature these collections in our stores, social media as well as excited to be part of other platforms such as Fame+,
The large, dizzying, black and white paintings of London-born Bridget Riley are perhaps the most known works of the OpArt movement. From 1961 to 1964, the artist experimented with contrasting black and white compositions, occasionally including tonal gray gradations. One of her most well-known pattern of work is reflected in her work Pause, one of six works painted in 1964 which share the same formal constraints: painted on similar sized boards, they are each composed of circles and ellipses in the palette of grey. Riley regarded each of these paintings as a whole, a ‘field’ in which the individual parts are not perceived by the viewer. Therefore the overall size of each painting is decisive when determining the placing of the compressed band, the contraction creating a visual effect which depends on an awareness of different parts of the painting at the same time.
Watch: Victor Vasarely’s Optical Art
More information on the works of Victor Vasarely here via the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.
The OpArt Collection forms part of a 24 Filipino brand collection that the Nazareno and Lichauco were tasked to closely collaborate with, participating at the Maison & Objet Digital Fair in September 2021. Their collection called “In Any Kind of Place,” is inspired by a series of poems by Gertrude Stein—“a mentor to the ‘lost generation’ or the collective of creators left wandering in the wake of the global devastation, after the pandemic, the 1918 flu, and World War I,” says Nazareno.
“The irony of the ‘lost generation’ or ‘lost souls’ is that they would actually be the ones to help future generations find themselves,” she adds. “So we look at the influence of the last century since the last global pandemic, to kind of look for something towards the future.”
The Stella Collection
The Stella Collection is Mejore’s maiden collaboration with CITEM featuring a small line of furniture designed by leading Filipino artists Rita Nazareno and Gabriel Lichauco. These furniture pieces reflect modern silhouettes and clean lines with a distinctly U-shaped design. Each design also features the beauty of natural woven materials specifically solihiya and raffia. Mejore with its almost four decades of industry experience hopes to bring the Filipino craftsmanship globally through this intimate collection.
