Léa & Nicolas
- Mathilde Herbinier
- Apr 28
- 2 min read
Léa & Nicolas began in 2016 with the desire to try to make a living doing something with our hands, together. Léa & Nicolas is the work of a couple, Léa Behr and Nicolas Hoang, with nothing to bring us together at the outset. A childhood in Alsace, a childhood in Vietnam, a valedictorian, a dunce, a rooted person, an immigrant. These differences have forged our life choices, that of the artisan life today, that of immigrating together to Montreal in 2010, and are reflected in our objects.
We work with red stoneware in the style of porcelain. We value raw stoneware while striving for finesse. Our ceramics are brutalist in their bareness and naturalist in their materiality.
Each object is made in our Bedford, Quebec workshop, where we emphasize simplicity in the means we use and a diversity of techniques: throwing, plate-forming, pellet-forming, molding and casting; all in the service of exploring shapes and textures. The creation of each of our objects is driven by the search for balance between its functional and sculptural properties.
Our ethos is to do more with less, the precious with little - little means but a lot of time and perseverance. With Léa & Nicolas, it's the coherence between who we are and the world we live in that we're looking for. Our starting point was to replace all the objects we could in our home with ceramics, and to make our own tableware while respecting what we felt was important: a material that attracts us, that we want to touch and hold, and that's local, a form reduced to the essentials that lets matter and light express themselves, and optimal use.
We combine our training in applied arts, crafts and architecture with our experience as graphic designers and architectural technicians. Between us, we've designed school, house and mine plans, graphic identities and interactive installations, and together we've chosen to make ceramic objects to connect with the world.
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