Lisa Allegra
Lisa Allegra is a French designer and ceramic artist based in Barcelona whose practice explores the relationship between sculpture, furniture, lighting, and everyday objects. A graduate of the École des Arts Décoratifs in France, she approaches design through drawing, material, and craftsmanship, creating handcrafted collections that investigate balance, proportion, and the quiet presence of form.
Working primarily with clay alongside wood and textiles, Allegra develops timeless pieces that combine minimalist aesthetics with warmth and tactility. Guided by a fascination with material and the poetry of everyday life, her work celebrates thoughtful making, refined simplicity, and the enduring beauty of handcrafted objects.
Interview
I am French and was born in 1986.
As far back as I can remember, I have always had a strong interest in pictorial art. At a very young age, my mother always “put me down” in museums with a box of crayons, and I would stand in front of the paintings and reinterpret them. Museums, dance performances, and my participation in cultural and artistic events were part of my childhood games. And then these childhood games became my passion and my profession.
Yes, I studied at the Arts Décoratifs school, which combined the designer’s conception and drawing work with experimentation in the studio (wood, metal, glass, ceramics, etc.). After graduating, I worked in Parisian design studios and then at Diptyque Paris, where I was in charge of creating window displays around the world.
After this experience, I wanted to return to my first love by combining furniture design with a know-how: ceramics.
I need to let a project, a piece, sit until it is as precise as possible. I need to understand its shape in 3 dimensions and know how to build it. After this stage, I draw it. The drawing phase is used to find the proportions. I quickly move on to the model and prototype phase so that I can make changes to the shape to make it consistent with the material I am working with.
The joy of this job is that the content of my days changes according to the projects of the moment. No two days are alike. What is certain is that in one day (which is very long! ☺) I can create new pieces, exchange with architects, galleries, private individuals, take photos to communicate my work on social networks, launch a kiln, and imagine the future of my little business!
For me, clay is associated with childhood and a simple and primitive way of approaching the creation of a form. This material has several aspects: its instinctive and easily accessible part combined with the virtuosity that can be achieved with experience and the rigour of technical gestures. It is also a material that cannot be totally mastered, which makes us humble in front of it.
Their apparent simplicity and their balancing act.
Have a lot of curiosity, want to learn everything, whether it is with your material but also with the layout of a piece, photography, communication, etc. To have people around you who believe in you and, above all, to like short nights ☺
It is difficult to identify a particular movement. My work is sometimes in line with the different artistic movements I have learned during my career and sometimes in opposition. I would say that I am more inspired by Quaker furniture, Donald Judd’s minimalist sculptures, John Pawson’s spaces bathed in soft light, Jasper Morrison’s pure design, etc.
The artists who have shaped my vision are quite far from the field of object design. James Turrell, Anish Kapoor, Do Ho Suh, and Penone: their works are experiences, an immersion in our emotions and a connection with ourselves. It is a story of sensation, the same one that runs through me when working with clay. There is also the work of architects like Tadao Ando or Libeskind, who propose a very sensorial architecture. The design of Naoto Fukasawa or Carlo Scarpa inspires me with their attention to detail.
Faye Toogood, BLESS, Max Lamb, etc.
Designers who have a very strong awareness of their universe and the values they want to convey through their creation or their business model, like Margiela or Jacquemus, for example.
An object = an idea.
What a detail tells.
Working with simple yet soft objects.
“Clay is a material that cannot be totally mastered, which makes us humble in front of it.”
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
Gentleness
Disappearance
Impatience
Slowness
Ethel and Jean-Luc, my parents
Not to have any
Confident blur
Wisdom
Honesty
Honesty
All sorts of very French expressions (that are full of imagery)
Speak several languages
My physical and mental hyperactivity
My children
A new born
Anywhere, it depends with whom
I am not a materialist
Cowardice
Thinking about a new project
Talking all the time
Their kindness and loyalty
Georges Perec
Louise (from Thelma and Louise)
Charlotte Perriand
My man
The names of my children
Pride
Too young to have regrets
In my sleep
Be interested in everything, always learn, doubt a little, act a lot and move forward with confidence
“The artists who have shaped my vision are those whose works become experiences—an immersion in our emotions and a connection with ourselves.”
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