Creative Space: The Urban Homes of Artists and Creatives

by Francesca Gavin

Creative Space looks at the studios, apartments, and homes of the designers, directors, stylists, artists, graffiti writers, curators, novelists, and innovators that are pushing the boundaries of contemporary culture. These are interiors created by people who shop in Colette in Paris, live on the Lower East Side in New York and travel to Tokyo. The domestic spaces are often DIY and strongly reflect pop culture.

Filled with post-modern pop collectables, vintage junk finds, camouflage and graffiti, clothing and toy collections, contemporary art resting in bookshelves and crammed onto walls, these homes are an antidote to the sterility of minimalism.

Looking at these interiors city by city, among the 30 homes featured in the book are those of artist and designer Julie Verhoeven and Maharishi founder Hardy Blechmann in London, graffiti artist Fafi in Paris, artists Ryan McGinness and Wes Lang in New York, innovative creatives Jaybo and Lucio Auri in Berlin, Barcelona filmmaker Roger Gual, and Tokyo's cult photographer Yasumasa Yonehara and artist Aya Takano. The spaces they inhabit and work in give a real image of today's avant garde.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2009

Reviews

[Melanie Biehle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book because I really enjoy getting to peek inside the places where creative types live and work. However, it's not nearly as interesting or well executed as another book with a similar concept, The Selby Is In Your Place. The interviews in Creative Space are kind of dry and it's SUPER annoying when the author asks about something specific in their space (like a skateboard chair or collaged bathroom) then DOESN'T photograph it. Argh.