Paolo Ulian

Paolo Ulian (1961–) is a highly regarded Italian designer. Versatile and inventive, he has achieved some of his most significant results in projects centered on marble, which he interprets and shapes into surprising textures with the technical mastery of a sculptor from another era. Marble is, in a sense, inscribed in his personal history: born in Massa, he approached the world of design through his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, a region at the heart of Italy’s marble industry. Emblematic of this strand of his practice are his collaborations with the brand Antoniolupi, for which he created a series of highly theatrical monolithic washbasins, including the Introverso model, awarded a Wallpaper* Design Award in 2018. This piece has been the protagonist of striking performances in which the designer himself fragments the marble using a specially designed hammer, generating ever-changing forms. A key figure recurring throughout Paolo Ulian’s career is Enzo Mari, who can be considered his mentor in many respects. Ulian worked as Mari’s assistant between 1990 and 1992, and twenty years later it was Mari himself who consecrated his former student’s success by curating the major exhibition Tra gioco e discarica at the Triennale di Milano in 2010—the second solo exhibition entirely dedicated to Ulian’s work. The circle closed in 2020, when Paolo Ulian designed the exhibition layouts for the major retrospective devoted to Enzo Mari at the Triennale, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli. Among the other brands with which he has collaborated are Zava, Cassina, Alessi, and Kriptonite.