{"id":158178,"date":"2026-03-09T17:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158178\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:43:12","slug":"pauline-leprinces-nyc-debut-beneath-the-surface-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/158178\/","title":{"rendered":"Pauline Leprince’s NYC Debut: ‘Beneath the Surface’ Exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPARIS \u2014 When French designer Pauline Leprince moved from the theater scene to design<\/a> after the COVID-19 pandemic, her futuristic aesthetic quickly caught on. In 2024, she garnered international attention for her redesign of Karl Lagerfeld<\/a>\u2018s Rue des Saints-P\u00e8res home, which she turned into a scenographic temple of tempered glass and metal.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy design work is quite radical, so I really love to work on objects or objects that are really big and explosive\u2026with also some code of the past, which is really important for me,\u201d she said, in an interview with WWD inside Paris fashion-set haunt, Le Meurice hotel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeprince, a trained theater actress who retrained as an interior designer and architect at France<\/a>\u2018s Ecole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure des\u00a0Arts D\u00e9coratifs, is gearing up to break onto the New York<\/a> City design<\/a> scene with \u201cBeneath the Surface\u201d at Kaia Editions\u2019 200 Lexington Avenue showroom. The exhibit<\/a> will open Wednesday and will close late April.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA piece from Pauline Leprince\u2019s \u201cBeneath the Surface\u201d collection, which will be featured at NYC\u2019s Kaia Editions showroom on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tKaia Editions is a London-based high-end lighting brand started in 2013 by Manuela Szewald, who traded a career in finance and law for design. The firm\u2019s studio and atelier are in Munich.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the upcoming showcase, Leprince will unveil a collection of three minimalist pieces: a console, a mirror and a lamp, characterized by sharp geometry and burnt metal and glass.<\/p>\n

\n\tConceived as points of tension between the individual and society, these objects probe what lies beyond appearances or what lies beneath the surface, she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough her designs she confronts difficult topics and remnants of the past. <\/p>\n

\n\tA recent collection, for example, was about a past relationship. Named Prima Lien, it was a dialogue between tempered glass and metals. \u201cI wanted to work with these two materials as is if they were different worlds or like different countries fighting,\u201d Leprince said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe started her career working with industrial designer Christian Haas and she said she has been inspired by the Zero art movement, which was founded in D\u00fcsseldorf\u00a0in the late 1950s\u00a0by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene and was devoted to utopian principles and light and movement.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2025, Leprince\u2019s studio has also developed several scenography projects, including the 11th edition of the Les Rendez-vous de la Mati\u00e8re + Fair(e) trade show.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Pauline<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA piece from Pauline Leprince\u2019s \u201cBeneath the Surface\u201d collection, which will be featured at NYC\u2019s Kaia Editions showroom on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Pauline Leprince<\/p>\n

\n\tHer affinity for burnt metal, combined with glass, is rooted in its innate power to spark transformation. Fire imprints itself into the surface, leaving it marked and burnt, bearing memory and traces of the past, she added, pointing out that it\u2019s a fracture that refuses to be erased. Glass, in contrast, is transparent and fragile but allows light to flow through it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a design world that so frequently borrows from the past, Leprince said she\u2019s intent on creating fresh environments with her own unique language. While she frequently uses metal, she\u2019s starting to ponder new materials. \u201cIt\u2019s important not to stay in the same environments. And I think when you design or you\u2019re an architect and you work in the arts\u2026you are super lucky. I\u2019m doing the work I love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 When French designer Pauline Leprince moved from the theater scene to design after the COVID-19 pandemic,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5867,4442,7465,13080,22705,9,24,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-158178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-design","9":"tag-exhibit","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-interior-design","12":"tag-karl-lagerfeld","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nyc-headlines","18":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}