Ingo Maurer Lighting Design - Graham Owen Insect Design

Collaboration with Ingo Maurer - Based in Munich Germany and New York

Ingo Maurer, the "Poet of Light" is one of the most prolific and respected artist/designers working today.  I have the distinct honor of calling him a friend and collaborator.

Ingo came to Los Angeles in 2010 to work with me for three days, in a joint effort at refining artistic insects to be incorporated into his creative and beautiful lighting designs.  Ingo sparked and stimulated creativity which continues to render a natural and higher beauty to my creations.

In the past few years Ingo and I have worked on a number of one-off commissions for private collectors. Some collaborations are pictured below, while others will remain undocumented.

Some products, such as the J.B. Butterfly and J.B. Schmetterling lights, are available for purchase from the Ingo Maurer catalog, his galleries and distributors.

Design Week - Milan Italy - April 2013

Ingo Maurer - Dragon Attack

 

Graham - working and playing

 

Dragon Attack - by Ingo Maurer - dragonflies and damselflies by Graham Owen

 

s. Libellula Rossa - (red dragonflies) Spazio Krizia, Milano Italy

Dragon Attack, seen in Milan, is under construction, with internal lighting be incorporated before final installation

 

"Dragon Attack" and limited edition "JB Dragonfly" light

 

Ingo Maurer my dear friend and collaborator

 

More Collaborative Work - 2010 - 2013

 

 

Johnny B. Butterfly

 

J.B. Schmetterling (German for butterfly) limited production light

These gorgeous light fixtures currently beautify and illuminate presidential suites, in some of the worlds finest hotels

 

Close Up Detail

Insects on the JB Butterfly, JB Dragonfly and JB Schmetterling light fixtures are made exclusively for Ingo Maurer, each individually handmade, colored with exquisite pigments from Kremer Pigmente in Munich Germany and Cesare Crespi in Milan Italy. No molds, plastic, wood, clay, resin or epoxy are used in their construction; each insect is an individual work of art, created to be beautiful, life-like, durable, and light as a feather.

 

Graham Owen - JB Schmetterling - Ingo Maurer studio - Munich Germany April 2012

 

Interior Design magazine Market Tabloid cover page

 

"Material Worlds", Sotheby's at Sudeley Castle, July 28th - September 30th 2011, London England

 

Ingo Maurer LED Table and Ingo Maurer J.B. Schmetterling lights

 

Photos courtesy of Sotheby's

 

 

 

Ingo Maurer Lighting on Display

Spazio KRIZIA - Milan Italy

Ingo Maurer - Biotope - 2011

The Biotope is a multi-functional work of art, designed to provide light and dampen sound, by incorporating natural sea sponges, while captivating viewers with a magical sense of nature's beauty, mystery and enchantment.

An underlying theme is green, green, green, with spirits flying high, basically, an environmentally friendly masterpiece, incorporating sustainable harvested sea sponges, combined with man-made insects, presenting luminous atmospheres that play with traditional concepts of color, brightness, and shadow.

The Biotope was commissioned by a private collector, with final installation in an undisclosed location

Over four meters in length - one of the world's most amazing, one of a kind, artistic lighting designs

Center piece at the Spazio Krizia - Design Week - Milan Italy - April 2011

 

I enjoyed making snakes and salamanders, to compliment the insects, as well as chase and eat them...

 

Internally illuminated caves and tunnels add a sense of mystery

 

Iridescent butterfly replica basks in delight

 

Buttercup in Flight

 

Hungry Salamander

 

Blue Morpho's in Flight

 

Turquoise and iridescent beetle replicas - 3 of 6 beetle species made for the Biotope

 

 

Real butterfly specimens used for reference to study while making reproductions

These framed butterflies were raised on a butterfly farm, inspected and approved by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

 

Beautiful Ingo Maurer Lighting Designs - J.B. Schmetterling light fixtures and Biotope

 

I had a fantastic time in Milan, such an amazing city

 

Exhibition Invitation

 

Spirits Flying High!

More than 3,000 people attended the opening night party on April 12th

 

 

Ingo Maurer in Los Angeles - 2010

 

Graham in Munich Germany at Ingo Maurer design studio - December 2010

 

 

one of a kind Ingo Maurer desk lamp

 

Birthday gift from Ingo to his wife Jenny

 

 

Design Week - Milan Italy - April 2012

Ingo Maurer "Biotope Wall" - illuminated with LED Butterflies by Graham Owen 

This is going to a very wonderful new modern house in Switzerland

 

I love Milan!

 

Supernatural

 

beautiful light

 

a fun collaboration

 

Design Week - Milan Italy - April 2012

 

LED Butterflies

 

pretty wings

 

"House of Flies" - one of a kind light fixture - on display Design Week 20012

 

 

London Design Festival - September 2012

Ingo Maurer "Red Dragonfly" lamp

 

Red Dragonfly lamp on display - The London Design Festival

 

New York Times - Home section cover - September 27, 2012

A Few Photos from Milan

Break of dawn view from my hotel room - Central Station Milano - 2013

 

Skylight

 

Duomo di Milano

 

Departing Italy 2011

In the News

Bloomberg Businessweek - April 19, 2011

Beautiful in its simplicity, an Ingo Maurer lamp -- essentially an oversize bare light bulb -- was circled by its own handmade "bugs," each a work of art in its own right: butterflies, moths, dragon flies. One can't help but wonder how the real things would react to the colorful decoys. The piece is called "JB Schmetterling," German for butterfly.

New York Times - April 24, 2011

At Ingo Maurer's stand at Euroluce, the furniture fair's biennial lighting show, J.B. Schmetterling, a hanging light bulb ringed with handmade butterflies, moths, and dragonflies (schmetterling is German for butterfly), exemplified the designer's ability to fuse technology and poetry.

The Globe and Mail - Canada - April 23, 2011

The movie industry has the Cannes Film Festival and TIFF, fashion has the Paris and New York shows and design has the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (a.k.a. the Milan Furniture Fair). From all four corners of the globe, some 300,000 buyers, dealers, agents and designers descend on the northern Italian city each spring to see what's new, to be inspired and to buy...

German lighting designer Ingo Maurer even launched an LED wallpaper that can be affixed directly to the wall. In contrast to all this high-tech achievement, however, hand craftsmanship continues to be marketed as the ultimate luxury. Ingo Maurer's J.B. Schmetterling (Johnny B. Butterfly) is a bulb around which life-like "butterflies" flutter; Biotope, a sculptural lighting made from ecologically harvested natural sea sponge, comes complete with its own "eco-system" of (faux) insects.

Interesting Links

New York Times - "Style Magazine" - article- "Super Natural" - October 2011 - includes photos of Biotope final installation
Modern Design - article - February 2012
In Design Asia- article - Ingo Maurer interview - Milan - April 2012 - includes a nice quote about our collaboration
Graham Owen - visiting Munich Germany - December 2010 photography

Purchase - Johnny B Butterfly and JB Schmetterling lights

Ingo Maurer - website- Germany
Ingo Maurer - website - New York

www.divafurniture.com - Los Angeles, Seattle
www.formplusfunction.com - Santa Fe
www.informseattle.com - Seattle
www.lumens.com - Sacramento
www.luminaire.com - Miami, Chicago
www.olc152.com - Philadelphia
www.stardust.com Sonoma --------- JB Butterfly page---- JB Schmetterling page
www.scottcooner.com Austin, Dallas

Download Ingo Maurer 2012 Catalog - 19MB pdf file

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