Metalarte

Metalarte is a Spanish lighting manufacturer from the Barcelona region and an official partner of TAGWERC. The TAGWERC Design STORE carries selected lights from the Metalarte collection. All other lights from Metalarte and spare parts are of course also available from TAGWERC.

From metal workshop to luminaire manufacturer

The history of Metalarte begins in the early 1930s and is closely linked to that of the Riera Clariana family. In 1932, Antonio Riera Clariana initially founded a metal manufactory. Here he mostly carried out commissioned work from the raw material metal and sometimes also designed handicrafts. With ten years of metalworking expertise, the first lamp was created in 1942 and named 'No. 1'.

Innovation and experimentation

From the very beginning, Riera Clariana's work has been characterized by his pursuit of perfection, innovation and experimentation, which is still reflected in Metalarte's lighting designs today. Riera Clariana is fascinated by the design variety of different materials and their sometimes contrasting interplay. The Metalarte objects tell of flowing, rounded shapes, but also of the angular silhouettes of geometry.

Material and manufacture

Alta Costura', 'Dojo', 'Inout', 'Josephine' and 'Shoelaces' are luminaire families from Metalarte that undoubtedly bring the uniqueness of material and manufacture to life and are represented at TAGWERC Design STORE . Not forgetting the 'Walden lights collection', design classics par excellence, which goes back to the design of Danish designer George W. Hansen.

Fateful encounter

Fate brought Hansen and Riera Clariana, who was traveling through the USA and other countries in the 1950s to find inspiration, together in Hansen's adopted home. The product designer was looking for a manufacturer to produce his now legendary lights with the characteristic swinging arm. After a visit to Barcelona, Hansen was impressed by Riera Claria's manufacturing maxim. The beginning of a decades-long collaboration.

Collaboration with designers

After moving to a factory building in Sant Joan Despí at the beginning of the 1960s, the collaboration with various designers was massively boosted until the 1970s. Metalarte produces Philippe Starck's first luminaire and the first halogen luminaire in the company's history, the table lamp 'Modelo Calder' by Enric Franch from 1974, which is included in the permanent exhibition at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. The list of Designerwhose designs are still produced by Metalarte today is long. In addition to Hansen and Franck, the list includes the following designers: André Ricard, Josep Llusc, Estudi Blanc, Josep Aregall, Oscar and Sergi Devesa, Antoni Arola, Lievore Altherr Molina, Ricard Ferrer, Héctor Serrano, Jordi Llopis, Ana Mir, Emili Padrés, Otto Canalda and Ramén Ebeda.

Manufactory and Metalab

The founder's children, Antonio Junior and Carlos, join the company and continue to run the business. After the turn of the century, Metalarte moves again, to Paseo de la Ribera, in Canovelles, about 35 kilometers north of Barcelona. In addition to the showroom, production, warehouse and dispatch, a 'Metalab', a development laboratory for pioneering lighting solutions, is also built here.

Catalan pioneering spirit

Metalarte has remained loyal to the region around Barcelona to this day and is still managed here in the style of the family business of yesteryear. The values and maxims of the company founder have remained and have been adapted to new materials and technologies - this is where tradition meets modernity. Metalarte is represented at TAGWERC Design STORE with some selected lights classics of yesterday and tomorrow. As an official distribution partner of Metalarte, TAGWERC offers all original designs as well as original spare parts for lights from the Metalarte collection.