Cartwright New York
Carolyn Cartwright is the Founder and Principal Designer of studio Cartwright New York, a bespoke glass lighting and objects company based in Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of the fine arts department of The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and NYU Film School.
Cartwright runs a multi-disciplinary studio creating designs in blown glass, metal, and wood. She has exhibited at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and the Architectural Digest Fair in New York. Her work is represented by the Burden Gallery in Long Island City. Her Otto Luce Chandelier was a finalist for the 2016 World Interiors News prestigious WIN awards in the lighting category and it has been embraced by a collection of the country’s most prestigious Interior Design firms for their projects.
Cartwright focuses on original lighting and object designs combining historical references and rigorous craftsmanship. Her passion for the intrinsic qualities of materials, craft and sculptural form are the guiding principles of her work. She believes in the ability of light to transform space. She is interested in how light creates mood, she uses the glass to create a light which is soft, even and calming. She believes that the objects we surround ourselves with enhance and give meaning to our lives. They inspire us to think about the past and to build the future.
Cartwright creates work in which process is in the forefront. She favors pieces in which the strict geometry of design are set in opposition to the organic nature of the material. Fascinated by designs which reveal themselves over time, her pieces often appear simple at first, though later one discovers them to have complexities she calls the “perfectly imperfect”- details the eye can study for a long time and never tire of. She prefers glass for its contradicting qualities of fluidity, rigidity and transparency and exploits those properties to make pieces which balance these forces with a quiet elegance. She is dedicated to keeping the historic techniques of Venetian glassmaking alive, employing such skills as Canna, Latimo, Somerso and gilding in her work, while pushing their limits in new directions.
She enjoys collaboration and seeks alliances with an expanding network of talented artisans and craftsmen. She looks for opportunities to grow the scope of Cartwright New York by engaging with like-minded designers and architects for whom she can create new complex and challenging pieces bringing that work to a wider audience.