Studio Job: Monkey Business

Blurring the lines between industrial design and art installation, Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel of Studio Job have vaulted into the top ranks of contemporary design. Studio Job redefines the applied arts for the contemporary age. Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel’s collaboration creates highly expressive work where the physical potential of the materials they use—often bronze or laser-cut marquetry—is pushed to the limit, with an approach more in keeping with that of traditional guilds than industrial design. Studio Job: Monkey Business includes furnishings, sculptures, exhibitions, commissioned interiors, and the designers’ own home, tracing the past five years of Studio Job’s creative vision. Opulent, intricate, and ironic, the work of Studio Job combines an extraordinarily high level of craftsmanship with extreme ornamentation. Studio Job draws from the traditional and the topical, the organic and the artificial. With design inspired by illuminated manuscripts and more than 200 sketches, concept renderings, and photographs, Studio Job: Monkey Business is the ultimate expression of two of the most influential designers working today.

Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel founded Studio Job in 2000.

Glenn Adamson is director and Ronald Labaco is senior curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York.

Loic Le Gaillard and Julien Lombrail are principals at Carpenters Workshop Gallery and are based in Paris and London.