Xaver Kuster

Xaver Kuster is an Austrian artist and designer based in Vienna, working across collectible objects, lighting, sculpture, and spatial design. Born in Dornbirn in 1999, his education includes architectural studies at TU Wien and industrial design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. His practice combines traditional craftsmanship with unconventional forms and materials, exploring how familiar objects can acquire unexpected identities and create new relationships with the people who encounter them.

Kuster approaches design through the connection between an object and its user. Utility is one part of this relationship, alongside curiosity, attachment, and the pleasure of an object’s presence. His work encourages questions about construction and material, often making it difficult to identify immediately what something is or how it was made. This ambiguity allows practical objects to become expressive characters within a space.

The Fur Lamp series began with a furry stage prop that remained in his apartment and gradually became a companion-like presence. Developed into lighting, the idea combines artificial fur, sculpted foam, and an internal steel structure. Kuster makes each lamp by hand, moving through metalwork, carving, pattern-making, sewing, and electrical assembly. Small variations in this process give each piece its own silhouette, reinforcing the impression of individual creatures rather than identical products.

His exploration of craft also includes the Artifact Plate series, which uses hammer-formed steel to create objects intended for both display and use. Collaborations with chefs and food artists bring these pieces into settings where presentation, touch, and function interact. His broader sculptural work includes formed aluminium, extending his investigation of how physical processes can transform a material’s surface and volume into an unfamiliar object.

Kuster presented A Lamp Fur You at Alcova during Milan Design Week in 2023, introducing the Fur Lamp within an exhibition exploring the emotional possibilities of lighting. That year, he also collaborated with Liza Sočan on Room Service, Hotel Room 402 for Vienna Design Week. The installation connected spatial design, furniture, serving objects, and edible creations within a former hotel room, inviting visitors to experience design through a sequence of encounters that extended from the surrounding interior to the food served within it.

Xaver Kuster’s complete catalog available upon request.