On February 15^th, 2020, MANIERA Gallery in Brussels will present a new collection of works by Belgian architect, Bernard Dubois and the Spanish designer, Isaac Reina. The collaboration was a result of their mutual respect for modernist and post-modernist shapes, as well as for artists Elsworth Kelly and Imi Knoebel. The 8-piece collection includes a folding screen, a folding table, desk chairs and a lamp. 

Each object demonstrates a relationship between form and material: high quality natural and black-lacquered leather and oak wood. Reina’s passion for pure materials and Dubois’ penchant for maintaining a minimalist aesthetic has created a collaboration that is tactile, angular and inviting.

Barcelona-born and Paris-based Isaac Reina developed his eponymous brand of men’s and women’s bags in 2006, after 7 years of working as a design assistant for Hermes, with varied roles such as designing their leather collections and coordinating fashion shows. 

Reina opened his first shop in the Marais district in Paris, and his second store in the Rive Gauche district of Paris which marked his first collaboration with Dubois. Dubois designed the furniture for the space, and a staircase covered in leather which played with forms of ¼ circles and triangles.

Bernard Dubois made his name as co-curator of the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014 and by designing the Brussels Aesop store. For the collaboration, Dubois found inspiration from the works of Japanese architect, Kazuo Shinohara.

MANIERA 21 marks the 21^st show since the gallery’s establishment in 2014 by Amaryllis Jacobs and Kwinten Lavigne. Their focus has been to commission work by architects, designers and artists to develop furniture or functional products. These works create an intellectual merging of interrelated, yet still very separate, worlds of art, architecture and design.

MANIERA 21
Bernard Dubois & Isaac Reina
19 February – 9 May 2020
Opening on Saturday 15 February, 4pm – 8pm

Words by Julia Haney Montanez