Studio Job Studio Job delved into  their own design archives and used existing drawings, icons, images and patterns to create unique 9 mtr running compositions without any repetition, for the “Archives Wallpaper” collection for Dutch company NLXL

The William Morris-esque pattern is based on their inventory of folk imagery

Nynke Tynagel and Job Smeets

Deeply moved by the Withered Flowers stage set that Studio Job designed for Viktor & Rolf’s Fall Winter 2013 Collection, Rick Vintage of NLXL gave Job Smeets  & Nynke Tynagel a call.

Fifty different patterns made from motifs out of the Studio Job archives were carefully reduced to seven that made the transition into wallpaper.

viktor & rolf’s 2013 fashion runway stage show

Studi0 Job’s re-edited version of wihered flowers for NLXL

Withered Flowers wallpaper

withered flowers wallpaper – monochrome finish

The collection comprises seven designs: Industry, Labyrinth, Perished, Alt Deutsch, L’Afrique and Withered Flowers, which is available in both monochrome or colour.

Made from a non-woven paper with a matte finish, each roll is 9 mtrs by 48.7 cms

Alt Deutsch wallpaper

L’Afrique wallpaper

l’afrique

labrynth chair

Labyrinth wallpaper

Industry wallpaper

“The plain white wall behind a painting is an idea from modernism,” said Smeets.

“In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was not uncommon to present art on very ornamented silk wallpaper. But let me put it another way: with this wallpaper you no longer need any paintings.

Viewed in this way, per running metre, it is relatively cheap art.”

“Can you imagine what it feels like to browse through the archives of Studio Job if you love art?” says Rick Vintage, founder of NLXL. “We felt like children before Christmas.”

“This collaboration has brought NLXL to a whole new level. Job Smeets has created stunning sets for the promotional photos as well as our showroom in Milan during Salone del Mobile, so the Studio Job craftsmanship is present in every detail of this presentation,”

at Via Savona 35, Milan.

About Studio Job

Founders of Studio Job – Mr. & Mrs. Smeets

Founded in 2000 by Mr. & Mrs. Smeets both graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven now based in Antwerp and the Netherlands.

They redefine the decorative arts for the contemporary age. Their collaboration has created highly expressive, mainly one-off or limited edition works, from the outset.

Often cast in bronze or, later, crafted from laser-cut marquetry, the physical potential and malleability of the materials they use is pushed to the hilt.

Their approach is more in keeping with that of traditional guilds than anything industrial.

For Studio Job, creation is pre-eminent over definition. Smeets describes it thus: “Unlike most, we are probably not coming from Modernism. Studio Job’s contribution is that we have rediscovered a lost path. Consciously and carefully, we are positioning decorative arts in the twenty-first century. Is that design? Whatever. Is that art? Whatever, really.”

Opulent, intricate and ironic, Studio Job combine an extraordinarily high level of craftsmanship with extreme ornamentation. They reference both the traditional and the topical, the organic and the artificial.

This narrative conveys a tension between the good and the bad exploring all facets of each.

Their iconography is at once heraldic and cartoon-like, monumental and yet somehow primitive.

Due to this combination of elements, Studio Job’s style has become synonymous with the term ‘neo-gothic’.

This style is placed within an enigmatic, intellectual framework by the number and complexity of symbols and signifiers it conveys.

Studio Job’s work is widely collected both in the private and public sectors. Although, by definition, their work has primarily been geared towards collectors and museums, Studio Job has collaborated successfully with various like minded brands eg. Bulgari, Swarovski, Bisazza, Venini, Land Rover, Viktor & Rolf and Moooi.

There have been solo exhibitions in eg New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Milan, Geneva, Miami and Basel. Today, Studio Job designs are in collection of more than 40 museums worldwide.

In 2009 Nynke and Job opened Studio Job Gallery, a curatorial exhibition space for contemporary art and design based in Antwerp.

In 2010 an important monograph titled The Book of Job’ was launched by the New York publishing house Rizzoli and the Studio Job Lounge was opened inside the prestigious Groninger Museum.

In 2011, Nynke and Job turned a post war villa into Studio Job House filled with modernistic icons and contemporary pieces.

The Groninger recently dedicated a massive retrospective accompanied by a new book to celebrate the large body of work of these world famous creators!