Jos Kranen/Johannes Gille

About Kranen/Gille

Kranen/Gille is a design studio established in 2007 by Jos Kranen (Tegelen, NL, 1977) and Johannes Gille. The studio focuses on the verge between art and design and works within a broad variety of disciplines and materials in order to communicate their vision on aesthetics. Therefor, the output of the work relies on a broad variety also. Collaborating partners include or have included galleries such as Dilmos Milano (IT), Gallery FUMI (UK), worldwide renowned brands such as MOOOI, Fatboy and Seletti, or museums in the likes of Het Noordbrabants Museum (NL), Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris (FR) and Zuiderzeemuseum Enkhuizen (NL).

For Jos Kranen and Johannes Gille’s working period at the Taoxichuan International Studio they chose to elaborate on their ‘BASE’ concept. This form language revolves around minimalistic forms conceived in order to induce a sense of recognition in the observer. In this particular case they took a phenomenon named ‘pareidolia’ in which they as humans recognize theirselves or their expressions in inanimate objects. At the base of this project lies a body of work they once conceived for an architect named ‘Orthenaartjes’ after the city district they designed it for. In these artworks they depicted well known inhabitants of the neighborhood from the past as stylized heads, looking over the newly rebuilt district. 

The success of these initial artworks made Jos Kranen and Johannes Gille take them to Milan for an exhibition where they caught the eye of Marcel Wanders. This resulted in a commercial series of lamps for Dutch Design brand MOOOI named ‘The Party’ in 2018. Ever since the launch of ‘The Party’ they nurtured the wish to take the concept a step further and that is what they started during their artist in residence period at Taoxichuan International Studio. They redesi gned the concept and executed the forms in ‘superwhite’ porcelain, adding a variety of local textures and colors that caught their eye whilst being in beautiful China.