A New Art And Design Exhibition Featuring Jaime Hayon Opens In Rome

Jaime Hayon has long defied the boundaries between art and design, turning everyday objects into whimsical, sculptural statements. His world is one of bold colors, fluid forms and surreal details, where playful fantasy meets exquisite craftsmanship. Whether producing ceramics, furniture, paintings or sculptures, the Spanish designer-artist infuses his creations with a sense of wonder, often drawing from his Mediterranean roots to evoke warmth and emotion. His signature esthetic – sophisticated yet mischievous – transforms everyday objects into talking pieces that invite interaction and storytelling.

This artistic approach takes center stage at “Profili e Gesti”, a group exhibition at Rome’s Rhinoceros Gallery, presented in collaboration with Paris-based Galerie Kreo. Running until August 31, 2025, it features five designers – Marco Campardo, Pierre Charpin, Jaime Hayon, Jean-Baptiste Fastrez and Chris Kabel – whose works explore material experimentation, craftsmanship and artistic expression. By focusing on profiles and gestures, the show highlights how design shapes space, movement and perception, reinforcing the ongoing dialog between art and design. Galerie Kreo, known for its influence in the world of collectible design, continues its tradition of commissioning limited-edition pieces from leading designers, further solidifying the intersection of creativity and functionality.

Hayon’s contribution to the exhibition, his “Atelier Wonderland” series, exemplifies his signature blend of fantasy and refinement. Displayed alongside his wacky paintings and animal-shaped mirrors, his ceramic vases and chandeliers, painted in deep reds and lush greens, are adorned with imaginary creatures, while his glossy white porcelain vases – meticulously decorated with Bisazza mosaic tiles – showcase his mastery of detail. Playful birds, geometric motifs, red hearts and golden arabesques weave together in a dreamlike composition, transforming utilitarian objects into poetic expressions of joy and wonder. He invites us into a world where art and design exist in perfect harmony.

Your work has always been defined by playfulness, imagination, wonder and a sense of joy. How did your upbringing and early career shape this approach to art and design?

A lot of things describe in my work. Definitely it’s playful and definitely it’s working with my own imagination. There’s always a sense of joy, but there’s also a sense of criticism and questioning. If you think about my artwork, it’s mainly very playful, but there’s always a sort of tension in it. I think I am like a child when I do things. I want to restart from zero every time I start a project. I want to be naive, to have this sense of discovery like a child, so I try to not repeat myself, I start from zero, and that actually makes it playful. I’m always interested in worlds that are lost. I said lost because civilizations were lost. I love anthropology, I love museums, I love history, I love to look at folklore and things in every country that might click in my brain because there’s always a link to craftsmanship, which I’m super interested in and I’ve been defending for years. I’ve been using craftsmanship since the beginning of my career. I have always been passionate about the people doing things and how you can communicate with them and create something interesting.

Describe your creative language.

For me, no matter what, there’s always a story behind any project I create, there’s always a concept, there’s always trying to go to my own fantasy world. If you look at a space by Jaime and you look at a painting by Jaime, there is always a link, the forms, the objects, the fantasy behind them, the animal-like shapes, the organic forms, the volumes, the textures, the colors. There’s a lot happening. Over the last 25, almost 30, years of my life, I have just explored what my language could be.

You’ve moved seamlessly between art and design. Do you approach these disciplines differently?

I remember when I started, everyone in the design world had a school. People were asking me if I came from the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands or from the Royal College of Art. There was no school for me. I was a young guy in Madrid trying to invent what design meant to me. And I think I have left a mark in design because of being unique, not having any background, nobody telling me that’s the road to take. I took my own path. That’s why I can’t respond to your question about moving seamlessly between art and design and how I approach these disciplines. I don’t really think about it. I’ve always gone with my intuition. I’ve always started a project in the same way. The only difference for me between art and design is function. When you make a sculptural vase that has two holes in it, it’s not a sculpture anymore. It’s a functional and sculptural object. When there is absolutely no function in it, you can only see it as a sculpture.

Do your art and design projects inform one another in your creative process?

They really inform each other. If there wasn’t that freedom to express myself in the painting world, in the sculpture world and creating installations, which you obviously don’t have 100 % with a client when it’s a commercial project, my design would not be so experimental, expressive and trying to look for new path. That freedom comes from the art world. That freedom comes from no boundaries.

Your exhibition, “Bestial”, at Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami last December and January featured fantastical paintings and sculptures. What inspired this body of work, and how did it reflect your artistic evolution over more than two decades?

I would say this exhibition was about finding myself and finding what is inside of me. “Bestial” is like a beast looking at itself in the mirror. I’ve been painting for the last six years non-stop. I’ve painted about 157 paintings and done quite a lot of exhibitions around that. My painting practice is growing and my sculpture practice as well, becoming more and more important. To have the chance to exhibit during Art Basel Miami at Mindy Solomon, which is a beautiful gallery, and to be able to show this work and what it means to me, was a fantastic opportunity. 2024 was a hard year. I lost my father in January. I lost my mother several months ago, and I painted that body of work during that period of time. So it’s very visceral. You can see the brushstrokes. It’s about beauty, it’s about looking at yourself, it’s about taking some concepts like flowers that are represented in history and not trying to copy the flowers, but trying to invent the flowers, trying to dance with a brush to create new forms. That was very important to me. I think it evolved a lot.

What was the response to the exhibition?

I had very, very good feedback, I had very good collectors buying the work. The most important thing was that I could do it and that I could show it, and obviously it’s bringing out my artistic evolution because I’m not convinced that I had to stop with my success. No, I always have to challenge myself, and painting has been a great challenge. I’ve been a painter from day one in my life. I’m just taking it back again. I think I can do it quite well and it’s a beautiful exploration. I can see myself developing this practice and going somewhere with it. The exhibition was also about bringing out the animal side in me, this fantasy that starts from drawing that goes to painting and ends up in objects and installations. Every animal has a link to something – what the tiger represents, what the snake represents. All these animals, when you use them, they become something new. The body of work comes also from tradition because animals have been representing all kinds of different things in history, from the paintings of Rousseau and the Egyptians to Dali and Miro. Animals have always been there; they’ve always told us something. I invent the fauna and the flora, exploring the colors, the traces, the formats. I make them in my own way.