From Vaspaar, their Milan digital gallery, Andrea Grecucci and Kaisha Davierwalla sell classics of midcentury design to a growing band of discerning collectors
Photography by Mattia Balsamini featuring Kaisha Davierwalla and Andrea Grecucci
The ancient Persian name Vaspaar translates as ‘the provider of all things’, rooted in Zoroastrianism religion. It is also a Milan-based digital gallery with a rare collection of mid-century and contemporary Italian design, the brainchild of curators and life partners Kaisha Davierwalla and Andrea Grecucci.
The duo founded the gallery to bring the art of collecting to life. They instil the need to appreciate every piece in its context and to cultivate the understanding that an object holds metaphors and symbolisms that reflect the person who owns it. More than anything, the gallery’s name echoes who Davierwalla and Grecucci are as people.
The pair tell ICON they neither planned to venture onto the curatorial path nor even to establish a gallery together. Grecucci holds a degree in product design from IED University and Davierwalla studied her master’s in design at Domus Academy, both in Milan.
After their studies, the two went on their separate ways. Grecucci started developing design products for consumer electronics companies such as Vodafone, Pirelli and Telecom Italia, experimenting with artisanal techniques as he focused on craftsmanship.
Photography by Mattia Balsamini
Davierwalla worked as a sales manager for a Milanese design gallery where she nurtured her penchant for historic research, sales management, client relations and artist curation.
‘Eventually, the knowledge we had amassed and the many new experiences we had gathered naturally brought us to the point where we decided to put our combined knowledge to the test,’ Davierwalla tells ICON.
Their collective experiences led them deep into the Milanese design market, the rightful nudge that paved the way for Vaspaar. The growing collection includes original works by masters such as Gaetano Pesce, Ugo La Pietra and Gio Ponti, as well as Franco Albini, Alessandro Mendini and Superstudio.
Vaspaar has recently extended its oeuvre to collecting and distributing contemporary designs and pieces, starting with an exclusive series made by Grecucci himself. This contemporary collection is a project developed as part of the group Materie Prime (‘Raw Materials’) from Italy with which he is affiliated.
Photography by Stefania Zanetti featuring Vaspaar’s Proiezione Vases
For his collection, Grecucci transformed aluminium foam and porous aluminium into the Genesi coffee table, with two cylinders as the legs and an oblong plane as its surface. He also sourced alabaster from Volterra, Italy, and turned the monolithic blocks into the Neocene series of chalice-like vases.
A further series of chromed stainless-steel vases – Proiezione – are intended for flowers, small objects, fruit or just to function as decorative items for a contemporary home.
‘While creating these designs, I felt a strong sense of awareness about the past, from all the objects and archival information we had gathered from the masters of our Italian design heritage. I combined that with our know-how of the present since we enjoy such a bond within the design sphere in Milan,’ Grecucci tells ICON.
‘What touched me the most about this series is the feeling of being unbound from all my past experiences as a product designer. I felt liberated from the limitations of technicalities and numbers, and just enjoyed making objects the way I had imagined them to be. It was a mental projection of what I had in mind that took shape and became real from the materials I chose.’
Photography by Mattia Balsamini
Davierwalla, who started collecting design pieces in 2015, also co-curates Grecucci’s series. She says that when she began laying the groundwork for Vaspaar, she just jumped right into it.
‘Being young in this line of work did not go down well with quite a few individuals, but that gave me the passion to strive harder and maybe bust a few myths and stereotypes. The trick was maintaining a healthy balance between standing my own ground and being respectful of the traditions before. Once I found this balance, the path went smoother.’
She has found it a satisfying learning curve to understand how to research pieces, find trustworthy networks of suppliers and seek out advice from mentors.
The gallery’s identity is a culmination of Davierwalla and Grecucci’s evolving knowledge and skills in the design market. Together as Vaspaar, they offer curatorial advice, authentication of pieces, scouting and restoration to their clients.
Photography by Mattia Balsamini
They might have found a method that works well for them, but Davierwalla says there is always room to master new techniques and learn new business styles. In the meantime, the pair feel a sense of achievement every time an order is fulfilled and a client leaves positive feedback.
‘It is very rewarding,’ says Davierwalla. At present, the two see an increasing cultural exchange between art, fashion, and design. This has given rise to an increase in well-informed creative enthusiasts and connoisseurs in these industries.
The current collective mindset explores ideals and notions of what life and spaces should be like, all seemingly linked to wellness and wellbeing. Vaspaar finds itself at the crux of this group of new active collectors who understand the art of preservation and collection.
Photography courtesy of Vaspaar featuring Neocene vases
‘This speaks volumes of how the attitude of collecting has evolved and how the value of these commodities is perceived today,’ says Davierwalla.
What Vaspaar offers collectors are these mementos of milestones in the decorative arts that have taken on new perspectives in contemporary times.
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