The glass mosaic flowers are a 3-D rendering of the floral motiff in many of the mosaic panels on display at the SICIS New York City showroom.
Walk past the SICIS: The Art Mosaic Factory showroom on Broome Street in SoHo, and you can’t help but gape at the brilliant panoply that is the shop’s window display. Large glass mosaic flowers—perhaps 18 inches in diameter—are suspended from heavy chains along the storefront and ceiling, flashing gold and scarlet against the more subdued colors of the building’s façade. Upon encountering the spectacle, passers-by might wonder just what kind of shop this is. Inside, tesserae-encrusted panels and floors in competing patterns and color schemes change from level to level; all are displays of SICIS’s lavish interior wall mosaics. The Italian company has similar showrooms in major cities worldwide where it dazzles potential customers with glass (or ceramic) in the hope that they are persuaded to bring these luxurious designs into their homes or work spaces.
SICIS doesn’t conceive of single mosaics but of series with names like the “Hedonism Collection,” the “PixALL Collection” (for a pixilated aesthetic), even the “Pin-Up Collection“—a fantastically over-the-top assortment of statuesque, gartered beauties. As the company’s online profile asserts, the goal of “moving this product [mosaics] from the annals of history into the modern age” was, and is, a central motivation. In comparing the pin-ups and the dazzling flowers that adorn the windows to the mosaics at Pompeii, surely one can see an updating.
The SoHo showroom, which is also SICIS’s North American headquarters, is located at 470 Broome Street. Take a virtual tour of the displays here.
–Analisa Coats Bacall
