Matteo Di Ciommo’s unique pieces and limited edition collections are true narratives that take the form of furnishings and accessories: the work of the Milan-based designer and artist focuses on the imaginative and poetic sense of everyday objects. “Things can open up new horizons, tell stories, and make us understand something more about life and our relationship with the world,” says Di Ciommo. “Objects cultivate shadows and their silent essence, becoming horizons of meaning.”
Specializing in artisanal woodworking, the collections produced by Di Ciommo are numerous and all original. Frutteti (Orchards, 2023), for example, is a series of 6 unique pieces in wood of different species that function as object holders but also as decorations: the challenge was to bring a landscape, a natural horizon, into a domestic space. This creates “surreal still lifes and metaphysical visions.”
During Milan Design Week 2023, Matteo Di Ciommo hosted the Cabana Mad Gallery (Lisbon) exhibition in his evocative Garage Paradiso studio-workshop. For the occasion, he collaborated with designer Matteo Pellegrino to create They, a pair of coffee tables designed specifically for the gallery: with a solid wood structure and a resin top, the two unique pieces showcase the skills and experience of both designers.
Also from 2023 is the Giambellino collection: ongoing research on the theme of mirrors. The result is a mirror in various types of wood with a door in the center that hides an unexpected landscape within. Case Rampanti (Rampant Houses, 2023), on the other hand, is a series conceived for the centenary of Italo Calvino’s birth and consists of 20 sculptures of tree-houses. Here too, Di Ciommo used different woods, which he also combined with bronze.
One of the designer’s latest projects is the creation of a true domestic landscape: Untitled (2024) is composed of 190 small houses built by hand in solid wood, each different from the other. A real village made up of houses, buildings, and squares in a 20×20 format. The works were commissioned by a private client and are intended for a specific installation. At the moment, in addition to the Giambellino mirrors, Matteo Di Ciommo is engaged in another ongoing collection, a series of containers called Chiostri (Cloisters).
