After being an artistic director for over 20 years, handling the launch of various cultural projects, French designer Frédérick Gautier embarked on studies at the École du Paysage in Versailles, where he became acquainted with modelling and ceramics. Due to his fascination for brutalism, Gautier went in search of a type of clay that closely resembles concrete after the firing process.
Since launching, his FCK signature has adorned all of his creations working with this material. Passionate about growing food, he is also doing research about tools that were once used to feed oneself with. With his enthusiasm for events, Frédérick Gautier also shares his work in a variety of spaces, turning exhibitions into performances.
“Although I am immensely interested in Brutalism, I am not charmed by really brutal objects. I am mainly looking for simplicity and functionality.”
For Gautier, it is particularly important that the user is encouraged to be creative with the shape: to create figures, delineate spaces, serve tea, or to simply rest their feet. Following Frédérick Gautier’s striking statement with his widely praised FCK tableware, he now presents an extension of his work in concrete.
Gautier is a late bloomer in the design world. Only after more than twenty years in the cultural sector did he trade his job for an unpredictable livelihood as a designer – although ‘designer’ might not really be the right word when it comes to Frédérick Gautier.
Gautier is an artist, an artist in concrete. No design is noncommittal, behind every object there is carefully considered inspiration, a story, or a technique he has worked on for months. Gautier's brutalist work leaves no one unmoved. You either love it or hate it.
