Zoë Pawlak
Emerging Designer Zoë Pawlak Goes Beyond the Canvas
Engage with Western Living Magazine’s Industrial Designer of the Year at IDS West
September 26 to 29
Established Canadian contemporary artist and emerging industrial designer, Zoë Pawlak is Western Living magazine’s 2019 Industrial Designer of the Year. Pawlak is also the face of the September issue and gives an entertaining interview on “bridging art and design through thoughtful product collaborations with the best in the West.”
All of the Western Living Designers of the Year are leading experts in their dedicated fields and Pawlak delights in pushing the boundaries of her category further. In recent years, the prolific painter has found meaningful extensions of her art well beyond the canvas to create collections of rugs, mirrors, furniture and bronze pieces.
As an industrial designer, Pawlak thrives off of these collaborations, thoroughly appreciating the opportunity to work with masters at the highest level of their craft in each new medium she melds with. “I think unfamiliarity with a new medium is helpful. You ask different kinds of questions,” says Pawlak in the Western Living article.
Stacey McLaughlan, who authored the feature on Pawlak continues, “This curiosity pushes her collaborators to new discoveries: ceramicist Stephanie Flowers, along with the craftspeople at La Fonderie d’Art d’Inverness, had to figure out the physics of representing curving, figurative line drawing for a bronze wall sculpture; the team at Burritt Bros. followed her urging to make the hand-knotted silk-and-wool rugs “feel” like a painting. And the results are beautiful: pieces that are still works of art, yes, but ones with function.”
Pawlak’s openness to experiment expands how art can live unpredictably in a variety of spaces. Her three collections of rugs with Burritt Bros. have been derived from original artworks, her fresh approach to new materials marks her as an innovator in the merging worlds of art and design. Details on the collections follow at the end of the release.
“As one of the few women in the field, I am elated to be Western Living’s Industrial Designer of the Year,” says Pawlak. “Through my decade-long painting practice came a desire to innovate and explore different applications in mirrors, rugs and furniture. With their outsize proportions and exaggerated scale, rugs are a natural extension from the canvas and fit perfectly into the aesthetics of daily life.”
Designer of the Year judge Shawn Sowers, industrial designer for Ikea of Sweden, [offers],“there is an incredible sense of depth and space in her work. She’s blurred and transcended the art/design boundaries.”
In both colour and texture, the artist is a storyteller. Pawlak’s artistic roots are in painting, with a catalogue that includes:
- figurative – the universality of feeling takes shape
- landscapes – open space, unbound by time or place
- vessels – Pawlak’s most recent work studies spaces that both stand still and expand
Pawlak’s creations are an entry point and are many art collectors’ first art purchases.
Current available works can be viewed online or through the studio.
Meet Zoë Pawlak at Interior Design Show (IDS) West
Pawlak will be attending IDS West on September 26 to 29, 2019 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Event-goers of the design showcase are invited to drop by Pawlak’s booth to learn more about her and view pieces from her works. Zoë will be showing her, Vessel paintings, from her latest body of artwork, and one rug from her newest rug line, Eden. She will be in attendance for most of the show.
About Zoë Pawlak
Contemporary artist and designer Zoë Pawlak is known for her confident, ever-evolving practice. Rooted in painting, Pawlak’s practice has expanded to include industrial design, including rug, mirror and credenza collections. Born and based in Vancouver, Pawlak received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, followed by an exchange at Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Interior Design, The Globe and Mail, and Martha Stewart Living.
For more information about Zoë Pawlak visit zoepawlak.com or socially on Instagram.
About IDS West: 2019 Theme – Design DNA
Fostering design thinking, the Interior Design Show (IDS) Vancouver believes great design is considerate, responsible and worth it. Connecting talent, story and substance, space is created to ignite innovation and celebrate design tradition. IDS welcomes individual designers, artists, makers and design-centric brands who have come together in Vancouver to showcase their current works, concepts and products. In addition to experiencing installations and features, there will also be opportunities to hear from some of the design world’s most notable and talented personalities and connect with a long list of world-class designers that either call Vancouver home, or call on Vancouver for inspiration.
More About Pawlak’s Burritt Bros. Rug Collections:
Pawlak has produced three collections of rugs in collaboration with Burritt Bros.: Over Oceans, Red Dust, and Eden. Each rug is made with tradition, featuring Himalayan wool and Chinese silk, hand-knotted in Nepal.
Over Oceans
Over Oceans
Derived from an abstract painting of two lands meeting, the title piece suggests that impossible expanses are possible to cross.
Red Dust 
Shift
Pulling from her 20-year study of the human form, Pawlak explores our physical and emotional relationship to it.
Eden
Every Eden Glows
During her Summit residency at Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah, Pawlak spent a fruitful two weeks recording the way light hit the snow and moved through the landscape.
Media release and images provided by Krista Lochhead, Colley Communications.
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