Architecture meets art in the work of Juliano Cordano
Shoreditch-based multi-disciplinary artist, Juliano Cordano, draws heavily on his previous career as an architect and interior designer for inspiration, bringing trademark geometry and fluidity to his pieces, as well as an acute eye for detail and the ability to play with shadow.
An itinerant life means he is also inspired by the different cultures he has experienced on his travels, as well as by a family he describes as ‘unconventional’ – his mother was a successful fashion designer and his father a painter. Grandma’s Garden depicts the story of his grandmother’s garden in the Brazilian countryside, while Gentrification is a collection of panels inspired by balustrades and facades of new buildings in east London and San Francisco. The wall panels of Vilanova take their cues from Brazilian brutalist architecture and the likes of design legend Lina Bo Bardi.
For Cordano the shift from architecture to art came from his desire to express himself, and his perspective on the world, free from the demands of clients and the pressures of constraint. When he was growing up in rural Brazil he felt architecture was his only creative outlet but over the past two decades he has experimented with furniture and product design, as well as interiors. He describes this as the ‘third chapter of my working life’.
‘I strive to blur the line between art and architecture in my work,’ he confirms. ‘My design language is modern with influences from Brazilian brutalist architecture. A significant portion of my architecture training took place in Brazil, where I was exposed to, and influenced by, the modernist art and architecture of Sao Paulo State, which was produced from the 1950s to the 1970s. I guess it’s inevitable that my art is characterised by a modern and minimalist aesthetic.’
Evidence of this can be seen in his collection of wall panels, Untold Layer, for instance, where he juxtaposes his Brazilian architecture training with his more recent interest in classical detailing.
Cordano holds a degree in architecture and urban planning from Pontificia Catholic University of Campinas and University of Araraquara, a BA in interior design from SENAC Araraquara, as well as a degree in public administration and politics from UNESP University of Sao Paulo State, a post graduation in urbanism from Fontys Academy of the Arts in the Netherlands and an MA in furniture design from London Metropolitan University.
