Andrea Anastasio

Andrea Anastasio was born in Rome, Italy in 1961. He traveled to India at age 18 where he found another world. Now 25 years later, 11 years of which he has spent in India, he has designed a deep and layered knowledge of art, religious studies, music, theater and philosophy.
Andrea Anastasio received a degree in philosophy from the University of Venice and it was his interest in philosophy and history that opened the doors to the Memphis Group. This team of Italian designers and architects created highly influential products in the 1980's by challenging the idea that products had to follow conventional shapes, colors, textures and patterns. More recently Anastasio has been creating objects for domestic spaces utilizing materials originally thought for high tech industrial purposes or found on construction sites as well as rich textiles and garments. Andrea Anastasio came to the Gardner Museum under two roles: one as Artist-in-Residence, and one as exhibition designer and collaborator for the Chairs exhibition (February 11 – May 8, 2005). Anastasio spent his residency working on several projects and doing research on the anthropological aspects of the chair and later gave an Eye of the Beholder Lecture on the cultural, economic and political facets of chairs.