Design | Light-Dappling, Egg-Shaped Clay Lamps from Lightexture

TROY, NEW YORK — When he’s not using math to create mind-bending conceptual art, Sharan Elran makes lamps with a lighting designer and an architect.

Elran and his partners Avner Ben Natan and Yael Erel share the lightexture studio in New York. They say their goal is to create a robust collection of fixtures that can be both playful and sensual. Elran holds up the ceramic side of things while Natan brings his expertise as a lighting designer for film and screen and Erel draws on a body of lighting research as it relates to architecture.

We found some examples of the lamps their studio produces. We enjoy the way their oblong egg shapes make them more of a spatial presence in the room. The raw earth tones are peaceful and comforting. The highlight, though, is the way they dapple a room with tiny points of light coming from holes in the diffuser. They create a contrast between the portions of the room lit by the lamp, and the portions of the room just outside of the lamp’s influence.

You can see more of the studio’s work here.

Elran, according to his biography, is interested in how technology stimulates the development of new forms and discourses in art. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and he holds a B.S.c. in physics and computer science. Yael Erel works with light in teaching, artwork and academic research. She is a registered architect in New York and Israel and she graduated with honors from the Cooper Union and studied at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Avner Ben Natan has worked with light since the 1990s. A light designer for film and television, Natan is a multidisciplinary artist interested in music, storytelling and poetry. He received a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University.

Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.