Inspirations

Currently Coveting: The Emma Kohlmann Lamp Collection from Slow Roads

I’ve known artist Emma Kohlmann since she was a kid and am a huge fan. I’m not the only one. Her beguiling, dreamlike paintings were discovered on Instagram 10 years ago when she was in her mid-twenties, and she now has an impressive CV of shows near and far (she’s represented in NYC by Silke Lindner and in Copenhagen by V1 Gallery).

Emma began by self-publishing her own zines and continues to make printed matter (with her sister, Charlotte Kohlmann, she runs Mundus Press in Northampton, Massachusetts, where the two live). Emma also frequently collaborates with other creatives—with Simone Bodmer-Turner, she produced a sell-out line of vases, and she’s currently designing tableware for a major Danish brand. Emma Kohlmann Watercolors, a large-format book on her paintings, is being published any minute by Anthology.

Today, we’re featuring her latest collab: the Emma Kohlman Lamp Collection for online art and design shop Slow Roads. The brand’s founders, Catherine Costanza and Evan Dublin, supplied Emma with custom canvas lampshades to paint. They sized the shades to pair with vintage tree root lamps that they ferreted out on road trips in Upstate New York, Seattle, and California, and have carefully restored. The sculptural collection debuts on the Slow Roads site today and prices start at $1,450. Take a look. There are only six lamps, so act fast if you want one.

Photography courtesy of Slow Roads (@slow_roads).

here are the just finished shades in emma’s studio, in a former pap 17
Above: Here are the just-finished shades in Emma’s studio, in a former paper mill in Western Massachusetts. Emma grew up in Riverdale, in the Bronx; she studied at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. and has lived in the area ever since—but she has artist friends and toeholds around the world. Emma typically works spontaneously, without advance sketches, and has developed her own universe of reclining figures, floating faces, plants, and animals. She painted the shades with watered-down acrylics; each is one-of-a-kind and displays evolving patterns and scenes.
catherine and evan of slow roads are artist designers themselves, based in roch 18
Above: Catherine and Evan of Slow Roads are artist-designers themselves, based in Rochester, NY; their shop showcases contemporary and vintage housewares, all rooted in nature. Like the shades, each of the lamp bases is a one-off. This one is Lamp 4.