Anna Karlin acknowledges that while she’s aware of the past, she tries not to remain beholden to it. “Contemporary and the very new—that’s my favorite type of environment,” she says from her airy Chinatown studio. So that probably explains why her work feels so visually novel: as much as one tries to pinpoint influence to another artist, another work, another movement—sure, those curves are kinda Art Nouveau, that floral pattern-y sorta Arts and Crafts—it doesn’t really remind you of anything else. Except for, well, another piece by Anna Karlin.
This month, the self-taught designer releases her first new collection of furniture and lighting in three years. It includes everything from floor lamps to scones to counter seating and bar cabinets. (The idea for the totemic cabinet, says Karlin, came from studying Scandinavian fireplaces and chimneys—then, she added tiles and climbing-wall-like organic molds.)
Anna Karlin’s ceramic bar cabinet was inspired by Scandinavian fireplaces.Photo: Adrian Gaut
If there is an overarching term to describe—and link—the new works, it would be “sculptural.” An onomatopoeic table lamp affectionately called “Squidge” somehow looks soft, stout, and melty, even though it’s made out of glass. Karlin said she “tinkered” with the material for years until she found its final iteration. “Explorations, explorations!” she says. “It was a huge process of getting it right. We tried molded glass, free-form glass… it was the right alchemy of caste glass that just completely landed.”