FERNANDO MASTRANGELO, Copper Adit, 2025 / 2026
Edition of 20 + 1 AP
Numbered
Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity
Hand knotted rug
Wool, Silk, Lyocell & Mohair 
High / Low Cut

Drawing from the visual language of extraction landscapes, Fernando Mastrangelo develops a new work for Atelier Bowy C.D., part of Henzel Studio, created within The Atelier Editions program. The project translates the geological logic of mineral landscapes into textile form, compressing processes of erosion, sedimentation and excavation into a woven surface.

Official launch at Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, within the historic spaces of Le Cavallerizze, during Milan Design Week.

The work takes its point of departure in landscapes shaped by extraction. Seen from above, open-pit mines reveal vast terraces of exposed earth—bands of mineral color, carved ridges and stratified layers where geological time becomes visible as form. These environments, simultaneously natural and industrial, provide the structural framework for the composition.

Rather than reproducing these landscapes literally, Mastrangelo translates their internal logic into material structure. Geological strata become fields of color; erosion becomes relief; excavation becomes surface.

Born in the United States to parents of Uruguayan descent and raised between Monterrey and Buenos Aires, Mastrangelo developed an early awareness of landscape as both environment and cultural metaphor. After completing his studies at Cornish College of the Arts and later earning an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, he moved to New York, where he worked with artist Matthew Barney before establishing his own studio practice.

Working today between Brooklyn and upstate New York, Mastrangelo produces sculptural objects and environments that explore the intersection of ecology, industry and material culture. His works frequently incorporate raw or reclaimed materials—sand, salt, silica and powdered glass—substances that maintain a direct physical relationship to the earth. Through these materials, his practice examines how landscapes are altered, extracted and reinterpreted through design.

For this collaboration with Henzel Studio, the language of mineral strata becomes the central framework of the rug. Horizontal bands stretch across the surface like exposed geological layers, their tones shifting through oxidized reds, copper hues and deep earthen browns reminiscent of mineral deposits revealed through excavation.

Relief plays a central role in the composition. Variations in pile height generate subtle ridges and depressions across the surface, creating the impression of carved terrain. The rug reads less as a flat textile field and more as a compressed landscape—a woven topography where geological processes are condensed into fiber.

As light moves across the surface, these elevations catch shadow and reveal shifting contours, echoing the terraced formations of extraction sites seen from the air. Through Henzel Studio’s hand-knotted craftsmanship, Mastrangelo’s sculptural language is translated into a textile object where mineral color, relief and material converge.

The result functions simultaneously as object and landscape: a textile terrain shaped by geological memory and transformed through craft. Installed within the historic architecture of Le Cavallerizze, the work introduces the visual language of excavation into the exhibition space, allowing mineral strata and carved relief to inhabit the interior environment.