Creative Mind: Emma Donnersberg
The wildly imaginative interior designer expands her oeuvre into a collectible array of sculptural furnishings
Emma Donnersberg’s success story can be described as having been written in the stars. In her twenties, she was looking for a career path when an astrologer reading her chart suggested she had a talent for interior design. “Honestly, she was right—I adore it,” laughs Donnersberg, who got a master’s degree from Parsons in Manhattan and found her niche creating breathtaking interiors in New York, Paris, London, and beyond. “I could not live without doing design.”
Breakout moment: Even while building her interiors practice, Donnersberg always had an idea for constructing mushroom-shaped tables. She introduced her creations in 2019, debuting the pieces at PAD with Galerie Gosserez and Design Miami/ with Maison Gerard, which carries the woodland form—rendered in bronze or ceramic—that today populates interiors by leading firms such as Rodolphe Parente, Ingrao, and Fox-Nahem.
Collaborating with artisans: Although she’s mounting a solo show at Studiotwentyseven later this year and launching a new collection, Donnersberg equally enjoys working in tandem with other artisans such as Abel Cárcamo, with whom she debuted Penzai, sinuous bonsai-inspired lamps and tables at Les Ateliers Courbet, and Michel Amar, her collaborator on the monolithic Canyon tables. “It opens your mind, and it’s nice to get out of your comfort zone,” she says of the joint efforts. “It’s a dialogue between two artists.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Spring Issue under the headline “Creative Minds.” Subscribe to the magazine.