Gaetano Pesce was born in La Spezia on November 8, 1939. He studied architecture at the IUAV in Venice during a time when figures such as Carlo Scarpa and Ernesto Nathan Rogers, one of the founders of the BBPR studio, were teaching there. In the same city, Pesce also attended the Industrial Design Institute. In 1959, together with some other students from the Venice university, he joined Group N, a collective focused on programmed art based on the Bauhaus model.
Shortly thereafter, Gaetano Pesce became one of the leading figures of Radical Design, one of the most renowned Italian stylistic movements, which also found success abroad.
In 1983, he moved to New York City, where he lived and worked, and where he founded the company Fish Design by Gaetano Pesce. In 1996, a retrospective was dedicated to him in Paris at the Centre Georges Pompidou.
Pesce passed away in New York on April 3, 2024. He was one of the greatest Italian designers and architects of the 20th century. Pesce left an indelible mark on the worlds of architecture, urban planning, interior and industrial design. His works are displayed in world-renowned museums such as the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
His work, often characterized by a critical approach to industrial production, had a significant influence on contemporary design and challenged the conventions of design production. Pesce was known for his ability to transform everyday objects into works of art, often using resins and plastics to explore the expressive and functional potential of design.
