For a few years, Katharine and Carl Kostyal they chose to settle in Milan. Among the best-known gallery owners on the international scene – starting from the eponymous gallery opened in London, in Mayfair, in 2010, and now also based in Hospitalet, Stockholm, in the space about to reopen after a renovation of the premises – the two have been conquered at first sight from the apartment where they live today, a gem of architecture and design hidden behind the austere façade of an elegant nineteenth-century building.
Luigi Caccia Dominioni and the houses of Milan
Working on the project in the past was Luigi Caccia Dominioni (Milan, 1913 – 2016), advocate of a rational and sophisticated innovation that left its mark in many neighborhoods of the city, in direct contact with the great architects and designers of the twentieth century, from Piero Portaluppi and Luigi Moretti – his teachers – to the group BBPR, to the Castiglioni brothers (with whom he shared his first professional studio). In the historic buildings of Milan, such as the building that houses the Kostyal house, Caccia Dominioni intervenes with a sober language capable of harmonizing with the pre-existences; but also as a designer he will give shape to timeless intuitions, such as the lamps for Azucena and the Cavalletto table.
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Casa Kostyal in Milan
The attention to detail and proportions – formal and chromatic – pursued by Caccia Dominioni in interior design can be found today in the home of the gallery owner couple, who have touched little or nothing of what they “inherited”, also benefiting from lamps, tables and sideboards designed by Ignazio Gardella and Caccia Dominioni for the previous owners. But also mosaic floors (again designed by Caccia) and a bathroom with original mottled marble coverings, perhaps attributable to Portaluppi. Even the kitchen, with an elliptical vault, was designed by Caccia Dominioni. The two new hosts have amplified the allure of the apartment by populating it with new designer furnishings with taste for the made in Italy of the second half of the twentieth century (such as the sofas Maralunga by Magistretti) and with the works of the contemporary artists they collect (from Alex Da Corte to Claire Fontaineto Austin Lee) or curate as a gallery. Moreover, from the beginning, the idea was to open the new Milanese domicile to the artists of the Kostyal stable – European, American, Asian – organizing three times a year exhibitions that can be visited by reservationby a selected audience (the address of the apartment is provided only to those who get an appointment).
The exhibitions at Casa Kostyal
The exhibition can be visited until May 11, 2024, for example Be Sure To Never Get To Where You Are Goingdiscovering new works by Jordy Kerwick (Melbourne, 1982) between the rooms of the apartment. The unpublished canvases of the Australian artist, who lives and works in France and proposes the imagery of modern folklore, are displayed alongside a series of military flags of the Ghanaian Fante tribe, from the private collection of the tribal art collector Peter Adler. In Milan, Kerwick exhibits for the first time for Kostyal, but a second solo exhibition of the artist will be held at the Hospitalet venue in 2025.
Livia Montagnoli
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