- By
- Jennifer Mason
- Art by
- Gustaf von Arbin
ANA KRAŠ
“I grew up surrounded by Communist buildings and a lot of mess,” says New York–based furniture designer Ana Kraš, acknowledging the lasting influence of her formative years in Belgrade, Serbia, a city that has known its share of war. “I grew a love for brutal shapes and things that are not the [subject] matter of classic beauty.”
Although her childhood may have lacked some material necessities, Kraš was able to explore her creativity thanks to a family that never pressured her and “let me follow whatever I was curious about.” Their taste for simplicity and practicality was passed down to her too, from her grandmother, Mara, who improvised each meal so that no ingredient would go to waste, and her father, who built their family beach cottage by hand, along with each piece of furniture inside. He also built Kraš’s first wooden easel for painting when she was accepted to the local University of Applied Arts.
Despite these industrious influences, Kraš considers her choice of profession an accident. “At that age, it’s too early to tell what you truly want to do,” she says. “I was looking into different departments of the university, and I almost picked painting or sculpture, but then I saw Interior Architecture and Furniture Design and I was like, ‘Wow, how fun to make a chair or design an ice cream shop.’”
Her first piece was, in fact, a chair she created for her diploma work and named the Hug Chair. She explains, “I chose to do a chair as I thought it was the most difficult piece of furniture to get right and make somewhat innovative. I hated the idea of naming the chair, as you never call it that anyway, but it has to have a name for furniture shows and fairs.” That design was accepted and featured at the Milan Furniture Fair Exhibition, her first international show.
The most well known of Kraš’s work are her Bonbon lamps, lanterns made of wire frames and wrapped in colorful yarns that shade the light with varying intensity. Each lamp is handmade and can take about fifteen hours to construct. “Everyone thought I was out of my mind to pursue that idea. I kind of did too, but I got faster with practice,” she says. “It’s this manual, long-term work that serves as a meditation for me.”
Her latest project is a line of tables for Matter, the New York–based contemporary design store, inspired by the shells used to produce drums. She named them Slon, or ‘elephant’ in Serbian, since the tables resemble the animal’s heavy, steady feet. Elsewhere, Kraš continues to design, collaborate, and practice her other personal talents, such as drawing, painting, and wielding a camera with a wistful and romantic eye. “With time, I learned to be more comfortable saying I am an artist.”
For more information, please visit AnaKras.com.
- By
- Jennifer Mason
- Art by
- Gustaf von Arbin
