Galerie Ground presents Venetian plaster

For the past fifteen years, the ladies behind Kamp Studios have had a lovely relationship with Venetian plaster. Amy Morgenstern and Kim Collins started their architectural wall finishing company when they realized the possibilities behind the sought-after material. Kamp Studios offers gilding, glazing, faux bois, and other painterly finishes to some of the industry’s top designers.

The duo never imagined Venetian plaster would garner the following that it recently has. Speaking of their reasoning behind opening an art gallery, the pair told Surface Magazine, “It only seems natural to expand from finishing walls to curating what’s hung on the walls.” The idea was further cemented when they realized that their clients often asked them to commission artworks, “The idea of marrying architecture and fine art was becoming a very obvious path for us to take.”

Even though Venetian plaster has been popular in Europe for centuries, it hadn’t accumulated the same following in the United States until a recent resurgence. The timing is perfect for the Kamp Studios gals. The pair decided to open galleries in both Los Angeles and Brooklyn; in such, the brand will now be able to represent bi-coastal artists they believe in. Additionally, they will present the private art and design commissions they have been producing for the past ten years.

Over the past fifteen years, Collins and Morgenstern have become familiar with many artists. With these new openings, they had many options of artists to represent, in addition to their own previously unseen custom furnishings to display. In Los Angeles, the gallery is housed in a former casting studio that has been remade into a Tuscan farmhouse and in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Galerie Ground has overtaken a former chandelier factory.

Under Kamp Studio’s umbrella is also custom furniture that evolved organically. The pair is inspired by the works of Constantin Brancusi and Isamu Noguchi; in such, the collection includes beautiful plastered coffee tables and pedestals. The hope is that these pieces will inject a different feel into a home… one that is less obvious but clearly “intentional.”

About the gallery’s offerings of Kamp’s private label of furniture and objects, Morgenstern said (courtesy of Architectural Digest), “Functional pieces are something we have been doing for years now. It’s always something we’ve done on a commission basis for clients.” Sculpted cast plaster tables that look “as if they’ve been unearthed” are shown, in addition to fluted pieces that are made using the same techniques as the stunning wall finishings.

When choosing the artists to work with, the pair said that they were very specific. They wanted to work with artists that they really love; one such example is Christoper Baas. Interestingly, his work was discovered just last year when Collins and Morgenstern visited the long-time client’s Tribeca home prior to a plaster install. Courtesy of Architectural Digest, Morgenstern recalls, “We were doing a walk-through of his space and I was like, ‘What is this on the wall?’ He told me it was just something he did as a hobby to get his hands dirty, but the pieces were incredible.” The art is composed of oil-painted fabric stretched over an aluminum frame and architecturally inflated to create soft, semi-abstract figures. This work is a wonderful compliment to Kamp’s plaster walls.

What Galerie Ground hopes to achieve is a “genuine feeling of sophisticated organicism.” In the process, they hope that their beloved material continues to have a renaissance in places other than Europe. As one of the oldest known materials for surface treatments, it HAS stood the test of time. More than just decorative, plaster is an architectural finish that is able to transform a space. The studio said, “Much like lighting and hardware, plaster can completely transform a space. We’ve seen plenty of spaces go from ordinary to extraordinary once plaster is applied. We can’t count the times we were faced with jaw drops from clients- it’s a complete game-changer. It’s kind of the umami of architecture.”