About
Simon Johns, is a designer with foundations in fine arts, who lives and works amidst the tranquil seclusion of East-Bolton's woods in southern Quebec, Canada. What emerges from this creative sanctuary is a dialogue that awakens the senses—a dynamic interplay between the manufactured and the elemental. Johns' artistic practice takes shape in the form of exceptional, one-of-a-kind, and limited-edition sculptural furniture and lighting works, heavily inspired by the geology of this environment.
Within the studio ceramics, gypsum cement, metals, and intricately carved wood serve as an artistic lexicon, each imbued with its own geological resonance. Johns and his team manipulate these mediums, coaxing them to engage in a nuanced dance of mimicry, referencing and mirroring one another, as if echoing the millennia-long processes that shapes the layers of sedimentary stone.
The outcome of this process is a body of work of carefully crafted objets d’art, that are as functional as they are poetic. Distinct collections of significant objects for interiors, that ignite contemplation—a delicate reckoning with the interplay between the permanence of earth and the transience of our experience.
Awards and Recognition
ICFF Editors Award Best Furniture 2022
ICFF Editors Award Best New Designer 2021
Conseil Des Art et Lettres du Québec, Arts Research Grant 2020
SODEC innovation and production grants 2018-2019-2020-2021
Shows and Talks
Wanted Design/ICFF Manhattan 2023
Éditions 8888, Masters Of Brutality, Galerie WIP, Montréal 2023
Éditions 8888, Masters Of Brutality, New Studio, Brooklyn, 2023
Complètement Design, Montreal, 2023
Wanted Design/ICFF Manhattan 2022
Wanted Design/ICFF Manhattan 2021
Éditions 8888, Wet Metal 2020, Galerie WIP, Montréal
Sight Unseen Offsite Online, 2020
Select Hue at ICFF New York, 2019
Québec Design at Wanted Design Manhattan, 2019
Architectural Digest Design Show, NYC, 2019
Speaker at DesignTO ‘Uncovering Canadian Design’ Panel discussion 2019
Design TO thematic exhibition ‘Matter’ in Toronto 2018
Wanted Design-part of Qc Design Collective 2016
Sight Unseen Offsite 2016
Galerie C.O.A. Montréal - solo launch 2014