Damien Gernay

Damien Gernay was born in 1975, in the suburbs of Paris. He studied design at Ecole Supérieure des Arts (ESA) Saint-Luc Tournai in Belgium.

After school, he worked on scenography projects for contemporary dance and theatre clients in Belgium. From 2003 to 2005, Gernay was an artist-in-residence at Le Fresnoy, National Studio for Contemporary Arts in Tourcoing, France, a center for interdisciplinary artists. In 2007, he established his own design studio in Brussels.

Gernay’s work is highly experimental, driven by his desire to challenge boundaries between art and design. To date, his practice spans furniture, lighting, and accessories. His pieces often reflect a reverence for nature and the enigmatic; his larger oeuvre focuses on materiality, texture, and ambiguity. Close to the considerations of a painter or a sculptor, the imponderable plays a decisive role in his practice. The error is accepted and assimilated, making each piece unique with its own history, complexities, and intimate paradoxes. He combines control with spontaneity, mixing the smooth with the rough.

Gernay exhibits frequently, including, as of this writing, at fairs such PAD Paris, ICFF in New York, Milan Design Week, and institutions such as MuBE museum, Sao Paulo, Triennale de Milano in Milan, Design museum in Ghent, and among others.