On the border of Greenwich and Port Chester, N.Y., Claire Maestroni has opened a metal sculpting gallery and brought French art to the southernmost corner of Fairfield County.
“It”™s wonderful to be here among an environment so encouraging of art,” said Franck Areno, a recently transplanted French metalsmith and artist who co-owns Artelier studio. “In France as an artist you either work like a dog for a large company or you starve.”
Maestroni, a Corsican-born designer and owner of interior and concept design store Mis en Scene on East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich, is continuously looking for talented artists with which to pair her entrepreneurial pursuits. After seeing Areno”™s work in Paris, Maestroni persuaded Areno to move to Greenwich and open Artelier with her. The concept metal working studio at 28 Henry St. in Greenwich, allows customers and other artists to come and engage with Areno”™s large-scale metal works.
“We will be designing pieces for designers to use in their work as well as one-of-a-kind pieces for the general public,” Maestroni said. “Greenwich is a terrific market and with our location we are able to have a sort of hidden underground feel, within a large space.”
Areno, an established French painter began a career in metalsmithing and bronze-casting after not being able to find frames to fit his large pieces. Maestroni, who had been looking for ways of providing her clients at Mis en Scene with accessible metal and bronze pieces and solutions for larger scale, partnered with Areno because of his specific ability to make pieces for custom projects. The pair”™s first collaboration yielded a well-received line of bronze lamps, which led to the confidence to open the studio.
Artelier products are custom works of furniture or home decoration that often incorporate metals and unique driftwoods brought from all over the world.
“This business works in conjunction with Mis en Scene,” Maestroni said. “It is a bit unorthodox, but should prove to be a welcoming artistic place. We are a very open environment and going to be hosting designers and artists each month. It could be handbags or it could be furniture or painting.”
