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( about this product )
The Santa Fe lamp is a striking ceiling or suspension light designed in 1983 by Matteo Thun for the radical Italian collective Memphis Milano, embodying the playful rebellion of 1980s postmodern design. Crafted in glazed ceramic, its compact circular form is animated by vivid red zigzag or starburst motifs that radiate across a white surface, evoking flashes of light or comic-book energy frozen in motion. The contrast between functional white elements and expressive red accents reflects Memphis’ signature tension between utility and irony, transforming a simple lighting object into a graphic, almost narrative piece. With its bold geometry, saturated color, and deliberately unconventional aesthetic, the Santa Fe lamp stands as a quintessential example of Memphis design’s challenge to modernist restraint, turning illumination into a theatrical, sculptural statement.
( about ) the designer
Matteo Thun
Matteo Thun is an Italian architect and designer, born and raised in the bilingual German and Italian region of South Tyrol. Thun studied under Oskar Kokoschka and Emilio Vedova at the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, and graduated in Architecture at the University of Florence in 1975 with Adolfo Natalini. He moved to Milan in 1978, met Ettore Sottsass and started working in his studio. In 1981 he was one of the co-founders of the Memphis Group. The following year, the Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna appointed him to the chair of Industrial Design and Ceramics. In 1984 he opened his own studio in Milan. In 2001 he founded Matteo Thun + Partners: a multicultural architecture and design studio based in Milan and Shanghai. The studio’s work focuses on aesthetic durability, technological longevity. and the future durability of buildings and products. He won the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for Design Excellence three times, as well as the Good Design Award and the Simon Taylor Award for Lifetime Achievement, both in 2011. He was included in the Interior Design Hall of Fame in New York in December 2004 and is a member of RIBA, the Royal Association of British Architects.
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