Dishes that Double as Art: Emma Kohlmann’s Just-Released Tableware Collection from Hay
“I like to start with a line and see where it takes me,” says artist Emma Kohlmann. I’ve known Emma since she was a kid and have loved watching her work take her far and wide. Though only in her thirties, she’s been showing internationally for 10 years now—and is currently represented by Silke Lindner in NYC and V1 Gallery in Copenhagen (the latter discovered her on Instagram and gave her her first solo show back in 2016).
Emma’s fanciful universe of intertwined plants, people, and animals portray world we’d all like to live in. And now we can in a way: Hay, the Danish design company, has just introduced a collection of Emma Kohlmann tableware. It’s called La Pittura, meaning painting in Italian, a reference to many things, including Emma’s Italian immigrant grandparents and the Metropolitan Museum’s collection of painted vessels that she looked to for inspiration.
Raised in a bucolic corner of the Bronx and now based in Western Massachusetts, Emma and her art are so popular in Copenhagen that the city has become her home away from home—which is how she met Mette and Rolf Hay. After collecting her paintings, they invited her to design this hand-painted group of ceramic plates, platters, and pitchers. It was a three year process; join us in celebrating the launch.
Photography courtesy of Hay.
Above: Hay describes the collection as “blending art with everyday ritual.” La Pittura is now (or about to be) available online and from select stores around the world, including DWR in the States and Merci in Paris.
Above: Emma’s art seem to flow out of her spontaneously but she writes that the collection was “grounded in intensive visual research” of pottery over the centuries. Every piece of her tableware is hand painted: Emma worked directly with a group of skilled artisans in Sri Lanka who produce many of Hay’s ceramics.
Emma got her creative start by making zines and has always seen to it that her work is accessible. Prices for her tableware start at $29.
Above: La Faccia Jug, $99, directly references an Italian Renaissance piece at the Met with a “thoughtfully crafted handle and intricate surface details…that convey a sense of vitality.”
Emma collaborated with her sister, artist/curator Charlotte Kohlmann, on La Pittura Studies, a charming small book that charts the evolution of the collection and shows Emma’s historic inspirations and many unused designs. “The bowl, plate, and cup that populate contemporary kitchens is a direct descendent of the earliest ceramic forms,” Emma writes. “I am drawn to the visible presence of the maker’s hand—the raw, expressive gestures that bear witness to human touch across centuries.” The book will be available from the sisters’ own imprint, Mundus Press.
Above: Hay debuted the collection in June during Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design. Shown here, Hay House, the brand’s flagship store, with a hand-painted partition by Emma. The Rey Chairs are Hay’s reintroduction of Swiss designer Bruno Rey’s 1971 original and come in many colors.
Above: Moon Face Vine Bowls and plate, $29-$59. Made of stoneware, all of the pieces are designed for everyday use but can also be displayed as art.
Above: Peter’s Plant and Blush Face Vine trivets; $45.
Above: Emma named several pieces after family members; this platter is aptly the Josephine, $95, for her mother, a great cook and host.
Above: On display at Hay House: the cat platter is the Charlotte; $95.”Vessels are among the earliest expressions of art, bridging the domestic and the sacred, the functional and the symbolic” writes Emma. “As material remnants of daily life, they offer insights into how people lived, made, and connected across time and place. La Pittura is both homage and continuation.”
In 2024, Emma produced a one-off line of lamps with painted shades for Slow Roads: take a look.
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