Arturo Arita: Floral Haute Couture Artist
Floral artist Arturo Arita creates bouquets within Diatomée molten glass vases that become the vessel for his graphic and dreamlike landscapes, imbued with colours and shapes with architectural cut-outs.
Arita is an aesthete. His floral gallery, created in collaboration with interior designer Sophie Dries, is located on rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a stone’s throw from the Palais-Royal and the Cour Carrée of the Louvre. Centred around a large counter in sanded Brazilian marble, precious and organic, it resembles a garden ‘folly’ emerging from the Mannerist grottoes of the Italian Renaissance, with tufa walls and the niches that look like trompe-l’oeil, which hold his stylised bouquets. He seeks out vessels in Drouot, such as Cesar vases or pieces by Gio Ponti, which he sets off with his floral arrangements. He is also inspired by Art Deco and its precepts – order, colour and geometry – as well as by the baroque universe of Serge Roche. Originally from Honduras, this young New Yorker settled in Paris and established himself with a unique aesthetic that brings a lot of boldness and freshness to the capital. With his sophisticated, sensitive and poetic gestures, he combines large tropical-style leaves, in an elegant and stylish opulence.
When he combines his floral compositions with the ‘Diatomée’ sculptural vases in molten glass, designed by Parisian duo Garnier & Linker for Spazio Nobile gallery, he sublimates them in a unique botanical symphony. Diatoms are like glass houses that absorb light with an irregular wall that resembles silica: transparent and opaline. The bubbles that appear in the lost wax-cast crystal block symbolise the oxygen these diatoms provide to us, generously supplying oceans, lakes and rivers. By linking the crystal of these sculpted vases with exceptional and bold plant configurations, Arturo Arita cultivates the mineral purity of line by combining it with the bright and seductive colours of his signature flowers, such as Heliconia She Kong, Protea King Pink and anthuriums.
Arturo Arita is officially launching his e-shop, where he presents his floral arrangements in those Diatomée sculptural vases. These are edited by Spazio Nobile in 12 colours: purple grey, lime, citrin golden yellow, electric blue, light blue, light pink, sea green, purple, neutral grey, nearly black, crystal clear and amber whiskey. Each vase is engraved with the GL monogram, unique in a series of 20 colours per vase.
Images: Arturo Arita Bouquets in the Diatomée Vases by Garnier & Linker for Spazio Nobile, photos de Brice Chatenoud, courtesy of Arturo Arita.
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