The Office of Public Works welcomes 'Playing with Tradition' which will be on view to the public from 5 June 2015 in the beautiful Georgian Rooms adjacent to the State Apartments in Dublin Castle. Ciaran O'Connor, State Architect for the OPW will officially launch the exhibition today (4 June 2015) and in addition will talk on design and the Milan Expo 2015.

A stunning collection of works including: furniture, ceramics, jewellery, clothing textiles and tableware designed by over 30 esteemed Irish and international designers such as Philip Treacy, Gaetano Pesce and Marianna Kennedy. The exhibition also features a beautiful Hermes silk scarf designed by one of Ireland's foremost abstract artists, Richard Gorman.

'Playing with Tradition' is curated by Irish artist and designer Nuala Goodman and Mary Heffernan, OPW. It will be possible to purchase works in the temporary shop adjoining the exhibition. This is a wonderful opportunity for the public to view the work of international contemporary designers during Ireland's Year of Design 2015.

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For further information of the exhibition, please contact: Celine Kennedy celine.kennedy@opw.ie or Tel: +353 (0)1 645 8806.

For media queries please contact Colette Davis, OPW Press Officer – Mobile +353 (0)87 947 5552 or Email colette.davis@opw.ie

Follow OPW @opwireland

Notes to Editors:

Images from the event will be available from www.maxwellphotography.ie Images of the design pieces are available – Email: opwpressoffice@opw.ie

Playing with Tradition:

State Apartments, Dublin Castle, Dublin 2.

Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday 10.00 - 16.45; Sunday and Public Holidays 12.00 - 16.45

Tel: +353 (0)1 645 8813 or Email: dublincastle@opw.ie

Information on the participating designers:

• Marianna Kennedy Originally from Canada, Kennedy moved to Spitalfields, after studying printmaking at NCAD in Dublin. As friend Tash Aw says "Everything about Marianna'a work feels ancient but looks new." Kennedy is best known for her handmade lacquered tables, lamps, and mirrors. Her heroine is mid-century Irish designer Eileen Grey: "She had just a few clients who were very particular" she says. "Not many people work that way any more." Kennedy does, though. "We make things in small collections, and when they’re sold, they’re gone" she says. Clients include actors such as George Clooney and Liv Tyler, popstars such as Will Ferrell and Bryan Ferry.
• Alessandro Mendini is an Italian designer and architect. He played an important part in the development of Italian design. His design has been characterized by his strong interest in mixing different cultures and different forms of expression; he creates graphics, furniture, interiors, paintings and architectures and wrote several articles and books. He changed the landscape of modern design through his quintessential works of post-modernism such as the Proust Armchair , on show in 'Playing with Tradition'. Just as works of the Renaissance period expressed human values and sensibilities, Mendini has contributed to bringing into the heart of design those “values” and “sensibilities” that have been eclipsed by commercialism and functionalism. He collaborates with leading international brands including Cartier, Hermes, and Swarovski.
• Paolo Giordano, born in Naples,1954, studied Architecture at Milano Politecnico, lives in Milan. In 1996 founded the I+I design company, featuring handmade products from different continents. He believes in the evolution of craft using contemporary technology. Has participated in numerous international exhibitions of photography and design.
• Nigel Atkinson is an artist interested in creative crossovers between painting, words, textiles and objects. His work explores relationships between the interior and exterior and the play of light on surfaces and space. He lives and works between London and Pyrénées-Orientales in the South of France. Collections: V & A (London), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), F.I.T. (New York).
• Claire-Anne O'Brien is originally from Co.Cork, Ireland and graduated from The Royal College of Art in 2010 with an MA in Constructed Textiles, setting up her studio shortly after. She specializes in constructed textiles; material properties and textile technique are explored through hands-on experimentation and a sculptural approach.
• Jennifer Slattery takes inspiration from heritage and what has gone before and is committed to offering unique signature products that are made to become heirlooms. Slattery believes that age brings character and with that an inherent beauty. She is attracted to flaws, broken edges and her designs illustrate the beauty of imperfection. High quality fabrics are printed or embroidered, then each product is then cut from a pattern and sewn to make the final product by skilled craftspeople in Ireland. In 2014 Jennifer added The Louvre Museum in Paris to her growing list of International stockists, her products can also be found in Ireland’s leading retailers.
• Nuala Goodman lives in Milan and works as an artist, designer and curator. She collaborates on design projects with avant-garde companies or with individuals who have a particular skill, such as weaving, printing or furniture making, working with diverse materials to create a singular visual language. Both the 'Book of Kells rugs' series has the 'James Joyce' chair take an Irish theme and attempt to interpret it in a contemporary way.
• Donatella Pellini is the creative soul of Pellini brand, that was born in the atelier founded by Emma Caimi Pellini in 1947, three generations ago. Since the Eighties, she has worked for international fashion designers, making jewellery for their catwalks and experimenting with modern and innovative materials. Since 1990 she has worked in resin, an innovative material hand crafted by artisans, crafting wearable sculptures that tell the story of Donatella’s world.
• Uros Mihic born Serbian, naturalised Italian – uses sheets of paper, cut and folded with extreme care to create his origami. His background is in architecture studies, and a passion for shapes and compositions led him to learn the art of origami. He works on many site-specific installations for design shops in Italy such as Cassina, Armani and Ermegildo Zegna, often recycling and giving life to old books, such as in the Dublin Castle sculpture.
• Isabelle de Borchgrave Her creativity is often expressed through paper. Following a visit to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1994, Isabelle dreamed up paper costumes. Plissés, veils, gold-braiding, pearls, silk, velvet … her trompe l’œil achieves a level of rediscovered of rediscovered sumptuousness. Isabelle de Borchgrave has become a name that is readily associated with fashion and paper. But her name is also closely linked to the world of design. By working with companies such as Villeroy and Boch, Isabelle has turned her imagination into an art that’s accessible to anyone who wants to bring festivity into their home.
• Maurice Clarke born in Drogheda, studied fashion in NCAD followed by shoe design and pattern making in London and Milan. He has worked with the top companies in the shoe business for many years, from Ferragamo to Celine. This first collection of slippers by Maurice Clarke ' The Merchant of Florence' is made in Italy by first class Italian craftsmen while drawing inspiration from Irish symbols such as the Tara Brooch, The Newgrange spiral and the Claddagh ring which are woven in a gold jacquard pattern into the slippers.
• Karen Brennan is an Irish fashion designer who lives in Paris. In Milan she worked in Romeo Gigli’s studio over a period of seven years, then for Guy Laroche prêt-a-porter in Paris. A year later she was approached by the Prada Group to become head designer at Miu Miu, a position she held for three years and a period which saw sales of the collection increase five-fold. Finally Karen is presenting her own work in Ireland, a collection of sleeves 'All about sleeves' in pure Irish linen.
• Kyoko Wainai, artist and artisan, could be described as an intricately woven tapestry of fine gold and silver threads. A Native of Japan, she now lives and works from London, where she has continued developing a number of characteristics that define her working style. Her velvet and leather bags which are handmade show an attention to detail which Japanese craftspeople are famous for.
• Úna Burke studied fashion in Limerick. Since finishing college her leather accessories have had instant success.  All styles are crafted and sculpted by hand in the Úna Burke Atelier in South London and are made using only the best Vegetable Tanned leathers and solid brass fittings from the UK and Italy, the brand has developed such a strong celebrity following all over the world.  These include Rihanna, Lady Gaga and fashion icon Daphne Guinness. 
• Arthur Duff is from Dublin and qualified as an architect in India. Together with Greg Tisdall he established the Duff Tisdall Design Studio in Dublin. Duff is passionate about how Design adds value to all aspects of life and works across all design disciplines. Has recently been appointed to the chair of the new Masters Programme in Furniture Design in CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India.
• Richard Hutten graduated in Industrial Design from Eindhoven in 1991.In 1993 he began working with the ground breaking Droog Design group. His 'Playing with Tradition' rug is one of his few rugs designs and has been included in hotel interiors in New York and in Europe.
• J HILL’s Standard is a new manufacturer of mouth blown, hand cut, crystal glassware from Waterford, Ireland. With only a few lead crystal glass blowers and only a handful of crystal cutters left in Ireland this heritage rich industry is in almost terminal decline. J HILL’s Standard aims to revive the crystal tradition in Waterford by engaging with contemporary designers to create new collections that will have an international appeal to design loving consumers.
• De Vecchi Italian design company De Vecchi founded in 1935 where 3 generations later the original founder’s son and grandson continues in the design field, adding a modern twist to one of the firms most iconic designs with the MulT8 candle holder. It’s a 21st century interpretation of silversmith Piero De Vecchi’s 1947 classic award winning 'T8' creation, a piece that has become such a design icon it now features in the collections of five major international museums including the MOMA in New York. The original version came in silver, but the modern interpretation uses different shades and finishes of PVC tubing and metals to add colour and texture to a classic. It’s like a piece of art with a practical use.
• Lisa Farmer is an American-born artist and designer who produces unique leather objects that play with ironic forms and designs. Her labour intensive design pieces are both sculpture and product. Pieces from Lisa Farmer have been exhibited in galleries and museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
• Seliena Coyle creates jewellery that combines traditional and unexpected materials. Coyle aims to construct a new aesthetic that responds to Irish heritage while breathing new life into traditional jewellery forms. In this regard, Coyle takes inspiration from the state’s collections of Bronze Age artifacts. Her current body of work seeks to evoke the Irish peat landscape in its use of indigenous bog oak.
• Richard Gorman, born in 1946, is a painter printer paper-maker working Dublin Milan and Japan. In January 2015 Hermes presented a scarf with a Richard Gorman painting printed on it. Available in BT, Dublin.
Itami Museum of Art, Mitaka Art Foundation, Koriyama Museum, CCGA
Fukushima, Mitaka Museum of Art, Ashikaga Museum of Art.
Represented by Kerlin Gallery Dublin.
• Jacopo Foggini's family had a factory which manufactured car parts in reisn. Early in his career the Italian furniture designer discovered that by adding colours or glitter before moulding this melted material, he could create marvellous sculptural objects. From this discovery in the family factory he has developed a brilliant career and his work is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
• ZELOUF+BELL and their team of master craftsmen have been making high quality hand-built furniture to commission in their workshop in Ireland since 1992. Their work is in private collections, public offices, churches and museums, in Ireland and abroad. 
• Paola Navone has a particular talent for rediscovering design from the past and bringing it to life in new, contemporary forms. This process has proved very successful. She works as an interior designer and consultant for furniture and material manufacturers, and tries to combine modern design with traditional handicraft.Paola Navone prefers not to define herself within a particular niche or style.
• Helen Cody graduated in fashion and textiles from N.C.A.D and then moved to Paris to work for French Vogue Magazine, then to Azzedine Alaia, she developed her skills as a leading stylist for magazines, music videos, commercials and celebrities. Working in London, Paris and New York for the worlds leading publications.In 2000 she returned to Ireland and quickly became well known for her bespoke couture pieces, each one individually crafted and finished with hand dyed silk linings, Victorian embellishments, vintage ribbons, lace and crystals. Treating each new piece with the approach of an artist, so that the finished result is unique to the wearer.
• Philip Treacy ex NCAD student has become the world's most in demand hat designer. His hats are as popular with European aristocrats as with Hollywood royalty. Widely credited for changing the perception of the hat, he designs hats to flatter and enhance the wearer.
• Elisa Giovannoni Italian designer. Her LIZA floor lamp in plastic for lighting company Slamp is very contemporary while referencing more traditional lamp design from the past in form though not in scale.
• Claire Curneen's work uses the craft of ceramic to create fine art.
• Jarmila Mucha Plockova is the grand daughter of Czech artist Alfons Mucha, who is widely credited with having inspired the Art Deco Movement. Jarmila is a creative in her own right, but when she inherited exclusive rights to create objects based on Mucha's work, she has humbly devoted herself mainly to that, reproducing pieces of jewellery and objects from his drawings, pieces which had never been realized before in honour of her grandfather and her family tradition.
• Max Wax treats vibrant African fabrics with was so they can be made into umbrellas , shower curtains and other accessories.