You could be coming face to face with artist Salvador Dali’s almond-shaped eyes and trade-mark moustache at a dinner party near you.
Kevin Goehring, president of Square One, which makes contemporary ceram- icware, is bringing Dali art out of the museums and into homes.
Goehring asks: “Who says dinnerware can’t be provocative? Why not indulge our minds as we do our senses?”
Goehring knows that no one does Dali better than Dali, but Goehring has a fun and colorful hand in interpreting Dali’s work.
Dali’s face and painting themes (Ants and Flies, Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire and Hallucinogenic Toreador) will be in Square One’s Dali-inspired line.
The collection, which is being produced through a licensing agreement with the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla., made its debut in June at Henri Bendel in New York. The face mugs are available at Bendel in Chicago and plates are expected by the end of August.
The collection features eight designs, including dinner and luncheon plates, coffee mugs, teaware and serveware. Prices range from $28 for a Dali face mug or dessert plate to $900 for a limited edition 21-inch plate.
Each piece is hand-formed and -painted in Square One’s studios.
The 37-year-old Goehring, an award-winning artist, has a painting degree from Florida State University. He started his Tampa, Fla.- based company six years ago.
“There weren’t a lot of contemporary dinnerware companies on the market and few have since developed,” he says. “We’ve tried to develop a niche in the market with our fine dinnerware with artistic themes.”
In addition to Dali, Square One has its own signature designs of bright colored hand-formed and-painted curvaceous dinnerware, serveware and vases. The company also has licensed eight editions of dinnerware to Walt Disney Attractions, which are sold exclusively through Disney.
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Henri Bendel is at 900 N. Michigan Ave., 312-642-0140.