Category: Culture

Living and working between Hastings, UK, and Venice, Italy, Jim Stoten channels his boundless imagination into illustrations, animations, and even music. His bold, kaleidoscopic style is instantly recognizable: playful yet intricate, intuitive yet deeply considered. He thrives on spontaneity, allowing ideas to flow organically to create artworks that invite viewers to visualize the vast and intriguing worlds within his mind. “I try not to overthink,” he says. “I want my work to feel intuitive, playful—like an endless discovery in progress.”

For Foscarini’s What’s in a Lamp? series, Stoten reimagined six of the brand’s iconic lamps, transforming them into infinite zoom animations that serve as portals to otherworldly dimensions. Each loop draws inspiration from the lamp’s unique aesthetic, design story, or the worlds sparked in Stoten’s imagination.

Hoba, with its organic, meteor-like shape, becomes a cosmic odyssey through the stars, leading to a surprising encounter with an astronaut. Chapeaux, with its interchangeable diffusers, opens a whimsical parade of hats, each with its own distinct personality. Nuée’s soft, cloud-like folds, evolve into a snowy landscape, where a skier gracefully glides through. And then there’s Lumiere, Kurage, and Orbital—each animation invites you deeper into Stoten’s vivid vision, urging you to lose yourself in the intricate details and layered narratives. It’s like a psychedelic deep dive into light and design.

We had the opportunity to dive deeper into Jim Stoten’s unique perspective and artistic inspiration in this exclusive interview, which we’re sharing below. Experience how natural it feels to immerse yourself in Foscarini’s iconic designs through Jim’s vibrant, endlessly zooming journeys by exploring the entire What’s in a Lamp? series on our Instagram channel.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey as an artist. How did you get into illustration?

When I was a child I drew all the time as a form of entertainment for myself. When I applied and was accepted to study Illustration at the University of Brighton, all I knew about the course was that it encouraged all sorts of experimentation which I was really interested in. While studying I made lots of music, animations, drawings, prints and paintings and gradually after studying, I built up to where I am now.

How do the two sides of Jim Stoten—the illustrator and the musician—coexist and influence each other creatively?

I still really enjoy experimentation within creativity. Sometimes with both imagery and music, I feel I hit a wall – a place where I have worked so hard to get to, that I need a break. So then I turn to whichever way of working I haven’t done for a while, until I hit another wall and can turn back again. Basically, whenever I feel tired of drawing, I make music and when I’m tired of making music, I go back to drawing.

Your artistic aesthetic is incredibly unique. How would you personally describe your distinctive style?

I really have no idea. I know how other people describe it and I don’t always see what others see. I think my aesthetic is deeply rooted with how I think and what I am interested in conveying.

We’re curious about how your expressive style evolved over time. Did it develop naturally or was it the result of intentional research and experimentation?

It’s developed and changed over time. The work I’m doing now is very different to the work I was doing 10 years – in my opinion at least. It’s not intentional change, things just change as I find new things that attract my attention and hold my interest. Experimentation is exciting to me. I really like adding new things and taking away other things that I don’t feel are working anymore.

What’s your creative process like when working on your artworks? Do you have specific rituals or habits that you follow when you’re drawing?

Yes. If I’m in my studio, I make a pot of coffee and I have something on in the background, usually a film that I’ve seen before or an old TV chat show interview – something that I can listen to and occasionally stop to watch. If I’m not in my studio, maybe on a train or a plane or in a pub, I have music on my headphones and that’s it.

Your illustrations strike an intriguing balance between simplicity and complexity, where colorful minimal illustrations evolve into immersive video stories. How do you come up with your concepts?

The ideas behind the work are usually very immediate. I try not to think about that part too much. For me, overthinking ideas and approaches leads to uncertainty about the strength of an idea or concept. I like work to feel intuitive while I’m making it, which means that what is communicated varies depending on what I’m enjoying in making the work.

What inspired you to collaborate with Foscarini for this project?

I was excited by the freedom to move with this project. It felt like a nice opportunity to experiment and communicate simultaneously which is something that interests me greatly. It’s great to receive briefs like this where I am trusted to be free in terms of what I do.

Can you share the concept or inspiration behind the “What’s in a Lamp?” series?

For this project I allowed myself to mix my appreciation of the product’s aesthetic with my own loose interpretation of the background story behind the design. I wanted to be playful with both, in order to give myself the freedom to build an atmosphere that worked across all 6 animations.

Among the artworks in your “What’s in a Lamp?” series, do you have a personal favorite? If so, what makes it stand out for you?

I don’t have a favourite, I am happy with them as a set. The whole set is my favourite.

And, more in general, do you have a favorite subject to draw?

Horses.

Your work appears to offer a unique and original perspective on reality. How do you nurture this creative and alternative viewpoint?

I think my sketchbook is an important part of this process. I keep it with me at all times, and draw in it whenever I have time. I collect ideas in there that don’t have a place anywhere else for the time being, and mix it all up with the process of recording things I see, hear, remember, feel or just things I like. This means that any one page of my sketchbook is a big mix of everything that is happening inside of me and outside of me. My sketchbook always provides a good start point for how to approach projects.

What does creativity mean to you?

Creativity is a gift. It allows a person to process and digest any part of life that they wish to focus on, at the same time as bringing something that previously did not exist, into the light.

Artist, graphic designer, and curator Giona Maiarelli, born in Italy and living in the United States for more than twenty-five years, stands as a bridge between two cultures. His work focuses on collage, a medium shaped by randomness and serendipity, blending intuition and tactile elements with an aesthetic sensibility that honors the ability of art to create unexpected and meaningful connections.

“For What’s in a Lamp?, Maiarelli has assembled a series of collages that weave Italian culture into a deep dive into the American collective imagination. Foscarini’s iconic lamps, including Aplomb, Binic, Caboche, Chouchin, Nuée, and Spokes, are at the core of these works, combined with imagery from vintage magazines, books, and photographs, creating unique visual compositions that highlight the distinctive aesthetics of each lamp, while placing them within the context of the American myth with accents that are sometimes ironic, sometimes romantic.

“My goal was to explore the tension between the refined Italian aesthetics of Foscarini lamps and the pragmatic ruggedness of the American landscape,” says Maiarelli. In his artistic interpretation, Caboche becomes a circular jewel paired with American water towers, while Spokes, with its rays, evokes the chaotic tangle of electricity lines where birds rest. Chouchin, on the other hand, transforms into a flying object, referencing the American fascination with extraterrestrial phenomena. Each lamp thus becomes the protagonist of a visual narrative that blends design with storytelling, aesthetics with imagination.

Discover more about this collaboration and the full series by Giona Maiarelli on Foscarini’s Instagram channel @foscarinilamps. Explore all the works in the What’s in a Lamp? project, where international artists are invited to interpret light and Foscarini lamps.

Hi Giona, can you tell us about your artistic journey? How did you come to embrace the art of collage, and what does this form of expression represent for you?

At the beginning of my career as a graphic designer, I loved recycling paper scraps and cardboards used in presentations into a collage. I saw expressive possibilities in the waste of my work. Then came a long break dedicated to my profession, though I was always drawn to Dadaism and collage, particularly the works of artist and poet Jiří Kolář. Finally, in 2016, I decided to return to my passion.
“Rediscovering” collage years later meant rediscovering the pleasure of creating with my hands, which, as intermediaries between the mind and the paper, become active parts in the creation process. Paper cutouts move on the cardboard, intuition turns into action, until the composition reveals itself. But the cycle is not complete until the collage is seen by an audience. It is only when I see the collage through someone else’s eyes that the cycle is finished.

Your approach to collage is immediately recognizable and unique. How would you describe your style? What are the distinctive elements that define it?

Serendipity plays a fundamental role in my compositions: even when I intend to communicate a specific idea, the collage refuses to be accommodating and reveals expressive and compositional possibilities I hadn’t considered.
Then there’s the pleasure of surprise: finding a book from which to cut out images in a second-hand bookstore, discovering potential in images I initially discarded, and finally, the surprise of a composition that happens by chance on the page. Each series of collages starts with a theme, but instinct plays an essential part.

Where does your inspiration come from?

Inspiration arises alongside the work. When I start a collage series, I don’t have an idea in mind, only the material I’ve decided to work with, chosen based on an intuition. After a few hours, or sometimes a few days, ideas emerge on their own through the work itself.

What attracts you most in the reality around you, and how do you translate these suggestions into your work?

Most of the collage series I’ve produced are explorations of my personal American imagination: the landscapes of the American West, the modernist architecture of post-war skyscrapers in New York, and the California Case Study houses, the old Hollywood, the pages of the New York Times. Perhaps unconsciously, I’m processing my decision to move to the United States, reclaiming images that were already present in my subconscious.

For the “What’s in a Lamp?” project with Foscarini, you created compositions that associate lamps with evocative images, sometimes ironic, sometimes poetic. Can you reveal the inspiration and creative process behind this work?

For What’s in a Lamp?, I wanted to place Foscarini lamps in an American context. It seemed like the most obvious choice, given that I live in the United States, and the American visual heritage is part of my artistic vocabulary.

In this series, the dialogue between the two cultures, Italian and American, is very clear. How do these two realities meet and blend in your compositions?

My goal was to explore the tension between the refined Italian aesthetics of Foscarini lamps and the pragmatic roughness of the American landscape, playing with the size and contrast between the color images of the products and the black-and-white images of the landscapes. In the end, these two worlds, so seemingly distant, melted into an embrace, sometimes ironic, sometimes poetic.

What specific elements of the American collective imagination did you bring into the collages you created for “What’s in a Lamp?”

The form and material of the lamps suggested certain paths. Caboche appeared as a precious circular jewel to pair with an austere element of the American landscape, like water tanks. Aplomb fit into the face of the “ideal” American man, created by combining the portraits of five American presidents, replacing his open, glowing light with a telegenic smile. Spokes, with its delicate rays, refers to the chaotic electricity wires that tangle in the American skies, from which birds watch us, reminding us of its vocation as an elegant aviary. Binic reminded me of a bright full moon and led me towards images related to America’s exploration of our satellite. I knew from the start that at least one of the lamps would become a flying object, a typically American phenomenon and source of naïve conspiracy theories. This fate befell Chouchin, shiny and technically perfect, like I imagine a flying object from a more evolved civilization might be, catching passersby by surprise. Nuée is a light, airy cloud that intercepts our daring diver and takes her on a magical journey.

Which artists or influences have most contributed to the formation of your artistic vision? Who do you consider your masters?

The Czech artist and poet Jiří Kolář, whom I mentioned earlier, has had a great influence on my work. And also the carefree attitude of the Dada and Futurist movements.

Do you have a ritual or follow habits when working on your collages?

Music, always.

What is creativity to you?

My mentor, Milton Glaser, used to say that creativity doesn’t exist; only imagination does. Creativity is nothing but the ability to imagine, and then create, worlds that don’t yet exist.

Constantly seeking original and distinguishing solutions – not just in terms of products, but also in narrative approaches – Foscarini has decided to rethink the industry’s typical conventions of social media communication and evolves its storytelling in an unprecedented and distinctive way.

The Instagram @foscarinilamps feed is transformed into a virtual place that offers room for well-known and emerging exponents in the world of visual arts, with the objective of developing amazement, beauty and fun. A kaleidoscopic project where international artists and content creators with different backgrounds – from digital art to photography, illustration to motion art – have been invited to “play” with Foscarini collection and get inspired by a catalogue of lamps composed by different styles, materials, and designers.

The first contribution comes from Luca Font – a versatile Italian artist – with an original series of illustrations inspired by modernism, with lively geometric effects. He is followed by the well-known Israeli illustrator Noma Bar – the master of negative space. And then: Federico Babina, Oscar Pettersson, Maja Wronska, Kevin Lucbert, Alessandra Bruni, Luccico and many others. Unique voices, styles and interpretations, narrating thoughts, sensations and emotions triggered by Foscarini lamps, to emphasize their forms, the ideas behind their concepts, or the effects they produce in a space. An intense calendar of unusual ideas and visions on the theme of light; a creative pathway that expresses reflections on the role played by Foscarini lamps in the transformation and definition of a personal interpretation of the home environment.