Carpenters Workshop Gallery Paris presents a new collection of artworks by artist and designer Léa Mestres, who injects whimsy and nostalgia into a design world that she considers often too serious and self-aggrandising. Welcome to Mestresville features lighting pieces and tables that reflect the new directions that Mestres is currently taking in texture, colour and materiality across her practice.

A dining table titled 3 carrer del bau is made of colourful mosaic tiles, with different landscapes depicted within the surfaces of the work. The scene found in the top of the table is inspired by the artist’s experiences in the countryside of southern France near the Spanish border, with different scenes portrayed. These memories act as souvenirs of states of happiness, offering an escape into a childlike past.

The large standing lamp Sheik Zayed Road is also crafted using mosaic tiles, this time to create a pale-coloured sculpture of cream and white shades, standing at over two meters in height. The artist’s use of mosaic in this body of work evokes European art nouveau movements – such as Catalan Modernisme – that used such patterns to create vivid impressions of the natural world.

As part of Mestres’ other new series, the floor lamp Dixie features a rough, textured surface painted to create a gradient colour effect of yellow and white. The work reflects how the artist designs colourful objects that are intentionally bright and breezy, as a reflection of her own personality.

Welcome to Mestresville embodies Mestres’ belief in creating objects that evoke joy, showcasing the inspiration she finds in idiosyncratic, stylised and absurd approaches that generate unrestrained expression in her work.