Colorado designer Monica Curiel envies her creations. “They’re the cool girls that I wish I was,” she says. The variety of cool girl is a bit more Veronica than any of the Heathers: Emotive but poised, her lighting and furniture strike a posture somewhere between bold and kind of a mess. A candleholder she made last year is just a smear of plaster on the table, an elemental daub mixed with wax and black interior paint. “I love taking that initial step in the process and then elevating it or having fun with it,” she says.

Curiel grew up in Dallas and was 19 and studying fashion design when she received a cancer diagnosis. “It kind of shook me to my core, as those do.” Between treatment, school, recurring cancer, and more treatment, she bounced between disciplines, studying art, architecture, and interior design on and off for about eight years before settling on product design around when she finished college in 2021.

Her work reflects how she grew up. “My parents are immigrants in the U.S. and they are labor workers,” she says. “So my mom cleans homes and my dad flips homes. He also has a lawn care business.” As one of five children, Curiel says she always had to contribute to the household. “Labor is how you support your family as an overall unit. I think I kind of grew up as a maker, as a doer.”

Making her La Mari table lamp, she built up layers of fabric-like ruffles in plastic and clay into a two-foot preening, posing pillar. “I was listening to a lot of mariachi music at the time in my studio,” she says. “I wanted to replicate that look, but without using maybe more conventional materials.”

Curiel recently completed a residency at the Anderson Ranch Art Center where she continued her material experiments. “I really love minimalism, but I also really love texture,” she says. Stepping back, Curiel explains that it’s up to her audience whether, in terms of material purity versus ornament, her objects are “too much or not.” No matter what, she thinks they’re cool.

You can learn more about Monica Curiel by visiting the studio’s website or on Instagram.

Top image courtesy Monica Curiel

View the 2024 Dwell 24!

—

Head back to the September/October 2024 issue homepage