Throughout our years of Tile Addiction, we’ve been lucky enough to see the many ways that the creatives of the world have used tile to produce the most fantastic creations. Many have a cultural root in places where tile has always been of the utmost importance, such as Portugal and Italy, and many have found ways to make un-loved and wasted tiles beautiful again. Each artist or design team have a unique spin on tile and it is with great pleasure that we share a selection of five of the best.
1. Pedrita
This Portuguese design studio, founded by Rita João and Pedro Ferreira, have produced a number of stunning tile portraits. It all began with “Grão” – a project that was predominantly aimed at giving new life to discontinued, mass produced tiles. They are fascinating productions, taking full artistic advantage of the miscellaneous curves, shapes, patterns, and colours available in the random selection of tiles.
2. Dalila Gonçalves
This art installation in Blankenbergue Square, Belgium is the work of Portuguese artist Dalila Gonçalves. These imposing boulders, collectively titled “Kneaded Memory”, represent the love lost for architectural decoration. With each tile indivdually prouduced and sculpted to fit the irregular shapes of the rocks, she demonstrates how even the most mundane of objects deserve ornamentation.
3. Graziano Locatelli
Taking a step away from the usual, Locatelli has a destructive approach to art. For many of his works it’s a classic subway tile that features heavily, with sculptures bursting forth, or characters appearing in the cracks. He finds the beauty in the broken, highlighting this with his project that seeks to pay homage to those who “taught us beauty through the concept of ‘living”, taking tiles from well known designers and showing that even through fractures and fragments, stunning design does not fade.
4. Zhanna Kadyrova
Ukranian artist Zhanna Kadyrova found her inspiration in 2014 with some second-hand tiles from São Paulo. With these neglected tiles she began producing mosaics with a twist, creating items of clothing for ongoing project titled Second Hand, as well as an entirely mosaicked marketplace. Since the Brazilian beginnings, Kadyrova has found an artistic home for tiles sourced from Ukrainian Soviet-era buildings, has decorated a mannequin with materials from Chernobyl, and most recently has used tiles from an old Venetian hotel to produce an intriguing installation.
5. Maria Ana Vasco Costa
Another Portugal based artist, Maria Ana Vasco Costa, demonstrates the inherent artistic quality of tiles through her work on The Wall Project. Playing with 3D design, geometric shapes, and handmade qualities, Vasco Costa is a true treasure of the tile world.
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, September 2020.