25 years of Galerie kreo: ‘we create the stories designers want to tell’

Some galleries follow the market; others set the agenda. For nearly three decades, Galerie kreo has been a place where innovation happens. Founded by collectors Clémence and Didier Krzentowski — now joined by their daughter, Clara — the gallery collaborates with the world’s leading industrial designers to produce limited-edition works, guided by an unwavering commitment to creative freedom.

Representing established and rising talents such as Marc Newson, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Marco Campardo, the team operate, as Clémence Krzentowski puts it, ‘like movie producers: we create the stories designers want to tell’.

An exhibition celebrating 25 years of this groundbreaking gallery, kreo: Icons of 21st-Century Design, is on show at Christie’s in Paris, 14-28 January 2026. Here, Clara Krzentowski speaks to Christie’s about how it all began — and why ‘slow design’ truly matters.

When was Galerie kreo founded?

My parents started Galerie kreo in 1999. Before that, they ran an agency that connected industrial designers with major brands and civic projects. In the 1990s, the mayor of the 13th arrondissement in Paris introduced reduced rents for galleries, hoping to cultivate a thriving community similar to Manhattan’s SoHo in the 1980s. My parents became part of this community, first as art collectors, and when a space became available, they took it.

So they would commission designers to make pieces exclusively for the gallery?

They adopted a model similar to fine-art photography or sculpture. Each design is produced in a numbered and signed edition of eight, plus two artist’s proofs and two prototypes. The idea was to balance scarcity and feasibility — close to unique, but not one-off. It also aligned with treating designers’ work with the same respect as art.

And the name ‘kreo’?

It means ‘creation’ in Esperanto. My parents wanted a short, universal word, and it happened to share the first two letters of our family name.

The gallery also has a vintage component. How did that evolve?

My father is an expert in Italian lighting from the 1940s to the 1980s, especially the work of Gino Sarfatti, who’s central to our vintage programme. Sarfatti was a pioneer of modern lighting and endlessly inventive — in the 1940s he set up his own lighting production company, Arteluce, through which he produced not only his own creations but also those of leading architects and designers of the time. So the vintage side grew naturally from that expertise, and today we focus on pieces from roughly the 1930s to the 1980s.

You’ve worked in both Paris and London. How do the two design cultures compare?

I’ve lived in London for 12 years now, and it’s an incredibly vibrant city — full of designers and artists. Some of our long-term designers are British-based: Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Marc Newson, Jasper Morrison, Marco Campardo… From a creative standpoint, the British can sometimes feel a little more playful and subversive — with unexpected materials, proportions, colours…

Have there been ideas that were too big or impossible to produce?

Surprisingly, no. We were lucky that early support from committed collectors gave us the freedom to take risks and produce ambitious projects — even when we knew they wouldn’t necessarily fit conventional ideas of what is ‘commercial’. Collectors like François Pinault, Azzedine Alaïa and Maja Hoffmann were instrumental in those early years. There would be no Hella Jongerius ‘Frog Table’ without them.

Which exhibition made an impression on you as a child?

As a child, I loved the Bouroullec brothers’ elevated, cabana-like bed, Lit-Clos — it was magical. Also the Cowbench by Julia Lohmann, which had a name and a passport: it is a political work about life, usefulness and material. Both stayed with me because they were immediately engaging and generous, without any context, even for a child. They set the imagination in motion.

The Christie’s exhibition brings together a large number of works. What can visitors expect?

Around 70 pieces! Many come from our gallery archive and personal collection. Others are more recent, and still available through the gallery. The selection is really fun: there’s a unique graffitied table by Virgil Abloh, TV-shaped vases by the Bouroullec brothers, and a monumental bronze bench by Guillaume Bardet — actually, we were a little worried it would be too heavy for the gallery space, but it’s fine.

Authenticating industrial design can be tricky. How do you approach it?

Expertise comes from experience and from really knowing a designer’s work. Archives, documentation and provenance are essential — especially as fakes have become more common — because they allow you to check original details against the piece in front of you. In our case, that expertise comes from long-term collecting and research. My father has been studying and collecting vintage Italian lighting for more than four decades. He’s published two reference books on the subject. This ongoing engagement with archives and research is something we continue to cultivate at the gallery.

What are your thoughts on restoration?

Each gallery has its own approach to restoration. Some restore works extensively, to the point where pieces appear almost ‘new’. On our side, we try to intervene as little as possible, except when it is unavoidable. We prefer to preserve the natural ageing of a piece, which speaks to its history and authenticity.

Which young artists are exciting you currently?

Marco Campardo, who has a really fresh take on material and colour, and Jean-Baptiste Fastrez, a French designer we’ve collaborated with for some years. We’re also looking at different fields where creation and use are closely linked — like fashion, where there can be an interesting relationship between form and colour in dialogue with use.

Younger designers today often work across multiple fields. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Both. On the one hand, it’s sad to see highly specialised activities disappear. On the other, there’s something exciting, and probably very relevant today, about designers becoming more multidisciplinary. Virgil Abloh really changed my father’s perspective on this. What struck him was Virgil’s rigour across everything he did, as well as his intelligence, curiosity and total commitment to design. His approach felt timeless, simply because it was good.

Would you describe what Galerie kreo does as a form of ‘slow design’?

Yes — very much so. We take time, and we protect that time. It’s not a movement so much as a resistance. Like in fashion, with designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, who followed his own rules: it’s about refusing constant acceleration. And I also think that’s exactly why the gallery matters. People recognise it as a place where ideas are allowed to breathe.

kreo: Icons of 21st-Century Design is on view 14-28 January 2026 at Christie’s in Paris

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