Wooden Lights and Vessels by Laszlo Tompa

I’m constantly amused by the internet, you set off looking for one very specific topic and it often throws you completely in another direction. One thing I’m sure you’ve seen us mention previously is the fact we’d like to highlight more work here in Europe that takes on similar design sensibilities to that of Japan, the Scandinavian countries often find a nice parallel but other representatives are typically tucked away and hard to come by. So when I went about trying to translate a furniture competition over in Far East, I didn’t exactly expect to see an abundance of Europeans on show, which is exactly what I found.

The work of Laszlo Tompa from Hungary really stood out to me, given its sculptural curves and rich wooden texture, so I headed across to his website to see what else I could find that he’d made. Above and below you’ll see I’ve placed a series of his recent work that includes these handturned light shades and a duo of quirky, secretive boxes which highlights the skill set Laszo has as a maker. Particularly the draw in the fourth image down which I’m sure you can appreciate is only achieved through absolute precision, the design leaves no room for error or it won’t function properly.

Like many of the sculptors we talked about yesterday, Laszlo attended a school for art and design, graduating from the Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest in 1993. From here he began working independently, entering competitions along the way to give his work further credibility and expose himself to a wider audience. Once he’d won first prize for the top furniture awards in his own country he targeted those aboard, which is precisely how I saw his work over at the International Furniture Design Fair in Asahikawa. Judged by some of the best designers in the world in my opinion, such as Naoto Fukasawa and Motomi Kawakami, Laszlo was selected as a finalist amongst a progressive independent field.

He’s someone I think you should keep an eye on if you’re a maker yourself, or even just take a casual interest in this style of craft and design. From a personal perspective I’m excited to see how he will grow and develop his skill set further, as he’s creating works with a modern aesthetic in a traditional style, which isn’t all that common in this day and age. I’ll leave the link for this just below for you to peruse, I hope you enjoy.

www.tompakeramia.hu

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